As the creators of the Parent Cafés, Be Strong Families is excited to announce that the California Department of Education recently added “expanding parental knowledge of child development through Parent Cafés” as one of the top strategies under their nearly $11 million federal Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B—5), previously announced on January 16, 2019. This announcement follows the inauguration of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris as California’s first Surgeon General. We are longtime admirers of Dr. Burke Harris’s work, including her 2015 TED Talk, “How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime.”

In May 2019, BSF's Board of Directors voted unanimously to amend its bylaws to give Regional Parent Engagement Advisory Groups direct board representation, welcoming four new members in the process. A milestone moment for grassroots-driven governance.

Physical Vitality is the health and well-being of your body. It’s the Vitality Domain that focuses on how you want your body to look and feel. It also addresses your attitudes and habits regarding nutrition, exercise, sleep and mindfulness. What really motivates us to take care of our bodies physically? What tips or tools assist us with staying fit? And how have our bodies changed over time?

What happens when a family-strengthening organization turns its own wellness framework on itself? Be Strong Families first piloted the Journey to Vitality Workplace Wellness Program in-house, applying the six Vitality Domains to build a healthier organizational culture from the inside out.

In November 2018, we gathered staff, board members, parent leaders, and partners in Pasadena to dream about our preferred future and to ask our community to help shape it. Here's a look at where we were headed.

Written before the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre and published in its aftermath, this reflection from BSF grapples honestly with anti-Semitism on both the left and the right — and what it means to fight for justice for all families.

In July 2018, Be Strong Families started a year-long strategic planning process using appreciative inquiry, under the expert leadership of Yoland Trevino, founder of Transformative Collaborations International. The power of appreciative inquiry is that it taps into the stories of what an organization’s members believe is best and how those stories can be used to create new futures for the organization.

In November, BSF's Katthe traveled to Nairobi to participate in Harambee Toto — a collective impact initiative focused on early childhood education, community development, and Parent Cafés in Kibera. The trip's centerpiece was a full cultural adaptation of the café model, now called Kikao Cha Wazazi — the sitting of the parents.