Grantee Resources: Parent Cafes
Parent Cafes are parenting support program supported by the Prevention Board.
Resources:
- Be Strong Families: https://www.bestrongfamilies.org/cafes-overview
- Training: if your agency needs staff to be trained to offer Be Strong Parent Cafes, Thriving Wisconsin coordinates trainings, contact Connie Dunlap (connie@thrivingwi.org).
- Community of Practice: Thriving Wisconsin coordinates quarterly community of practice for Parent Cafe implementers.
- Reporting: most agencies are reporting Parent Cafes in
DAISEY.
The Prevention Board has material for Parent Cafes. To learn more, contact your contract administrator.
Bodies and Boundaries Parent Café Series helps parents explore how to talk with their children about their bodies and what parents can do to prevent sexual abuse. The cafés respect parents’ values. Bodies and Boundaries are not Be Strong Parent cafés, however they follow the same general format and include an additional section with relevant topical information for parents in each café. Table questions match the café subjects.
Café 1: Talking with Your Child About Body Awareness and Sex
Parents explore ways to talk with their children about their bodies and body parts, how their bodies will change as they grow, and how to talk about these things in ways that fit their child’s age.
Café 2: Body Safety & Empowerment
Parents learn about why and how teaching their child to set their own body boundaries, helps them gain more confidence, feel more in control of their own body, and be safer.
Café 3: Understanding and Minimizing Risk
Parents learn who and what situations pose the highest risk for child sexual abuse and find out what they can do to help keep children safe.
Café 4: Advocating for Your Child
Parents build the knowledge and confidence they need to watch over the people and places where their children spend time by being alert and ready to speak up.
Orientation to offer Bodies and Boundaries Parent Cafés is offered by the Prevention Board through the Family Resource Center Professional Development System.
Healthy Media Habits is a series of
five videos created by early childhood media experts, Drs. Roxy Etta and Liz Horgan, for families and childcare providers of children ages 0-5. The videos offer research-based information and guidance on how to manage children’s media use, including tips for boosting the benefits of media and supporting families as they navigate media choices for their kids. There is a
toolkit and materials that can be used in a parent cafe series.
Reading Roots is a parent cafe created in collaboration with
Zero to Thrive at the University of Michigan and
Reach Out and Read. The parent café is based on the Be Strong Parent Café model. The Five Strengths are used as the foundation to discuss the importance of creating a strong and nurturing relationship between parent and child through reading, telling stories and singing.