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Get plugged into the latest Be Strong Families news, initiatives, and blog articles — all central to creating transformative conversations that nurture the spirit of family, promote well-being and prevent violence.
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Conversations for Your Thanksgiving Table
Gobble Gobble ya’ll: it’s the time of year again when families get together to eat, drink, watch football and parades, celebrate gratitude, and often, unfortunately … argue! Be Strong Families has a plan for that!
Foster Change, Foster Success
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.
Why Parent Cafés? Spotlight on Help Me Grow and Goal Concordant Care
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…
Evanston Is Family Strong! Family Fun Fest
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 …
Good Community News!
Board Member Sandy Baba shares Office of Head Start webinar titles “Supporting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Families: The Head Start Program Perspective” by Dr. Jerry Yang at Kai Ming Head Start Program
An Interview with Tecoria Jones on Radical Family Engagement
On November 30, 2020, as part of Be Strong Families daily webinar series Staying Strong and Positive for Ourselves and Our Children, Be Strong Families President and CEO Katthe Wolf interviewed Tecoria Jones about radical family engagement. What works to engage families? What are the barriers? What would radical family engagement look and feel like to parents and agencies? Where is it happening now?
Parenting a Child with Autism During the Pandemic
In our October 26 webinar for our series “Staying Strong and Positive for Ourselves and Our Children”, Literacy Programs Manager Deanne Surles and Mental Health Therapist Takara Montgomery discussed challenges and opportunities that COVID-19 has presented to Takara and her 13-year-old son, who has autism. By speaking from her own perspectives and her own unique experiences, Takara led webinar attendees in a learning experience of one individual’s journey through the pandemic with her family.
Family Storytelling
This week our blog is short. We want to encourage you all to be intentional now about the stories you’re telling and the stories you’re making with your family.
What to Do When You Have Negative Feelings Toward Your Emerging Adult
Feelings like frustration, resentment, and disappointment—and yes, even hatred—toward your emerging adult is to be expected and a natural occurrence during parenthood. Unfortunately, this is an issue that is under-addressed in parenting advice or discussions and precisely why parents are reluctant to express such negative feelings out loud.
So, what can you do about these feelings?
Parenting Emerging Adults
Back in the day, when we were coming up, our parents considered themselves pretty much done with their job as parents when we hit 18 (or 22) and graduated from school. Today? Not so much. Now, we know that adolescent brains aren’t fully developed until the mid-20s and, as parents, our experience is that our 20-somethings still need us…sometimes a lot. So, what’s going on and what can we do to prevent disaster and to successfully launch our kids into adulthood?
Are you part of a robust Parent Café effort with a dynamic team of parents leading the Cafés and seats filled regularly? Is funding for your effort slated to expire? Be Strong Families would like to assist with ensuring that your Café effort continues to thrive. We want to be your partner in sustaining Cafés and will be available to collaborate on fundraising activities, evaluation efforts, and promotion. Let us know what you need…