Since Be Strong Families (BSF) first pioneered the Parent Café approach in 2007, hundreds of programs In the US and internationally have adopted the approach, reaching thousands of parents and families through deep, personal conversations designed to facilitate transformation and healing. In 2019 we started the National Parent Café Evaluation Project to be able to share the impact of Parent Cafés. Fifty-five percent of our partners participated in the National Parent Café Project. The following are key trends in data collected in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

When you look down the long road of history, it’s clear that humans have contributed to our changing climate and environment. The environment, which is so important to the quality of our life and for the well-being of the next generation, touches everyone — and we ignore the perils of climate change for the next generations at our own expense.

Walking into the room on Saturday, May 20th, there was excitement in the air. It was a feeling of guarded optimism. Tables had been set with beautiful flowers and a presentation of statements of appreciation from youth in care in Illinois to the people who had shown them care over the years. This event was meant to honor, acknowledge, and celebrate foster parents, and an opportunity to promote camaraderie amongst Youth in Care and Foster Parents.

How and why do organizations that serve families use Parent Cafés as a strategy for parent engagement? Often, it’s to create a solid foundation of partnership between staff and parents and among the parents in a program to advance other programmatic initiatives. In 2022, Be Strong Families joined…

Be Strong Families’ first ever Family Fun Fest: Evanston is Family Strong! held on April 30, 2023 at the Robert Crown Community Center in Evanston, IL was a huge success with estimated more than 700 people attending, 33 community-based organizations participated in the resource fair …

Be Strong Families has charged itself with doing the work it takes to be an organization that promotes equity in everything we do and as part of who we are. We know that part of equity leadership is consciousness — the value of centering equity, the desire to lead equitably. Part of equity leadership is creating a culture of inclusion and minding how we relate to each other; part of equity leadership is hardwired into policy.

Be Strong Families is an organization focused on building trust. We do this by valuing shared experiences and committing to human-centered practices.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has created Youth Advisory Affinity Groups (YAAG) for members and allies of the African American, Asian American, Latino, Native American, and LGBTQIA+ communities.

The month of October was exciting for the teens on the Statewide Youth Advisory Board (SYAB) as their hard work came to fruition when the Governor of the State of Illinois signed a Proclamation declaring that October 2022 is Foster Youth Voice Month. Join us as we celebrate these teens who not only fought for themselves to be heard, but the other 20,000+ youth in care.