CAFÉ TRAINING
Get Trained on Cafés
A Café Training is an experiential, practice-based workshop that fully prepares participants to host Be Strong Families Cafés with fidelity.
How does Café Training work?
Highly interactive and practice-based, Café facilitators aren't trained as experts with answers. Instead, they learn to hold space, ask better questions, and trust the wisdom and experience already in the group.
Individuals, teams, and organizations who become certified learn every inch of the Café model. Certification ensures that depth carries over, and the results do too.
By the end of training, participants will know how to:
Host Be Strong Families’ Cafés using a structured, strengths-based approach that centers on reflection, not advice
Understand the anatomy of a Café
Explain the foundations of a Café - both philosophical and academic
Create an ambiance that maximizes the effectiveness of the Café process
Develop themes for Cafés, creating a unique experience every time
Enhance programming using Cafés as an engagement strategy
Draw on peer strategies from the active Café Community of Practice
“I came in unsure… and left knowing I could actually do this.”
— newly-trained Parent Café Host
Choose the type of Café that fits your community:
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Parent & Dads Cafés
For parents, grounded in the Strengthening Families Protective Factors framework.
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#WoWTalk Cafés
Words of Wisdom Cafés for youth and emerging adults, based on YouthThrive Protective and Promotive Factors.
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Journey to Vitality Cafés
Including Recovering Together Cafés, based on the six domains of holistic vitality. Open to any adult audience.
Two ways to get certified
CERTIFICATION PATHS
Café training leads to individual certification as a Café Host. Organizations ready to build lasting capacity can become Certified Training Partners and gain the ability to independently train hosts within their own networks.
FOR INDIVIDUALS & TEAMS
Café Host Certification
Participants complete training and become individually certified by Be Strong Families to host Cafés. Certification ensures hosts understand the structure of a Café and the why behind it.
Online: 3-day course, min. 4 participants
In-person: 2-day training, up to 20 participants
Includes 4-hr coaching + Community of Practice membership
Add-ons available for additional Café types or formats
FOR ORGANIZATIONS
Certified Training Partner (CTP)
This is BSF's training-of-trainers option. Organizations can become certified as training entities, authorized to train hosts and to conduct training within their own networks. CTPs don’t rely on BSF every time they need new hosts.
Online: 3-day course, min. 4 participants
In-person: 2-day training, up to 20 participants
Includes 4-hr coaching + Community of Practice membership
Add-ons available for additional Café types or formats
“The partnership we have built with Be Strong Families has been instrumental in our growth. Their training programs are dynamic and immediately applicable, and their continued support has made a lasting difference as we strive to strengthen families and communities.”
— Danielle Dill, MPH, Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, Certified Café Training Partner
Frequently Asked Questions
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Every Café Training includes:
Certification for one Café type and one format (separate add-on sessions certify you for additional types or formats)
Training manuals and three Parent Café in a Box cards for use during activities
Half-day (4-hour) Café Coaching to support your launch, including planning support, attendance at your first Café, and debrief
Membership in the BSF Café Community of Practice: peer support via Facebook Group (5,000+ members), exclusive trainings, materials updates, and special offers
Option to add enhanced coaching beyond the half-day upon request
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Online Café Team Training starts at $3,650 for a minimum of 4 participants ($912.50 per additional person). In-person training for up to 20 participants is $11,150 ($550 per additional participant, up to 30). Add-on certifications are $500/person online or $4,400 for up to 20 in-person. Prices are subject to change.
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Both. Online certification is a 3-day course. In-person certification is 2 days.
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Once you become a certified Café Host, you're certified for life. Certified Training Partners re-certify annually; certification is voided if the trainer separates from their agency.
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If you want to give Cafés a try or offer them in one agency, start with Café Host certification for your team. If you're ready to embed Cafés throughout a system and want to train your own hosts over time, the Certified Training Partner path costs less in the long run. Contact us and we'll walk through it with you.
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Check out upcoming Café Training offerings through the Be Strong Families Institute.
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Any individual who completes a Be Strong Families Café training can become a certified Café host. Many Café hosts are connected to community agencies like family-serving organizations, schools, or child welfare teams. Organizations become Certified Training Partners, and trainers associated with these organizations must remain connected to maintain their trainer certification.
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Online training typically takes 3 days, whereas in-person training takes 2. For an organization, say your organization trains a team of 10 Café hosts. Within 60 days, you can expect to be hosting monthly Cafés.
Ready to bring Cafés to your community?
View upcoming trainings or reach out to talk through the right fit for your organization.
Want to try it out first?
Every month, Be Strong Families hosts free, online, no-commitment A Taste of Cafés sessions in English and Spanish where you can experience a Café first-hand.