Parent Cafés

Building Resilient Families

Creating supportive spaces for caregivers to share, learn, and grow together

75 people

completed Parent cafe host training in 2025

31 people

completed Parent Café breakout room/ table host training in 2025

“I loved everything! The trainers created a respectful and inclusive environment that valued people's varied backgrounds and experiences.”

March 2025, Virtual Parent Café Host Training Participant Feedback

“Keep doing what you all are doing! I am a very shy person, today you all made me feel safe”

March 2025, Virtual Parent Café Host Training Participant Feedback

“Keep doing what you all are doing! I am a very shy person, today you all made me feel safe”

March 2025, Virtual Parent Café Host Training Participant Feedback

Find a ECIN Parent Cafe Training Near You

In 2022, ECIN played a crucial role in partnership with Be Strong Families to conduct a national evaluation of Parent Cafes participant feedback. Read the full report: Parent Cafés Report 2019-2021

Read the full report

ABOUT PARENT CAFES

Parent Cafés is a family-based and parent led program designed by Be Strong Families to facilitate peer-to-peer learning around five evidence-based protective factors that improve resilience and strengthen supports within families:

Resilience: Be strong and flexible

Relationships: Caregivers need friends

Support: We all need help sometimes

Knowledge: Caregiving is part natural and part learned

Communication: Children need help communicating

Parent Cafés are designed to address stigmas around mental health and behavioral health challenges within families by providing a safe space for caregivers to share lived experiences and receive concrete support, including referrals to behavioral health specialists.

ECIN Parent Café

Create safe spaces for parents and caregivers to share, reflect, and build stronger families through honest, peer-led conversation.

Movin’ On Up! –

This new Parent Café deck helps families explore economic mobility—building stability, opportunity, and generational wealth together.

Parent Cafés - Community Wisdom Through Shared Experience

Parent Cafés’ format creates opportunities for meaningful connections among caregivers through structured conversations that encourage reflection, sharing, and mutual support.

At its core, Parent Café is a human-centered program. Every aspect of its development involves community partners and parent leaders.

The format provides a critical platform for caregivers to share both triumphs and challenges, helping build stronger family foundations while reducing isolation.

Impact on families

Kora Wooten, a mother of four boys ages 8 to 13, expected Parent Cafés to be just another parenting class but was still interested in attending to find new ideas for managing the challenges of raising four boys.

Parent Cafés surprised her by being fundamentally different, offering a space where "everyone got to share their experiences" with genuine emotional vulnerability and group support—something she found particularly valuable.

Today, Kora actively recommends Parent Cafés to everyone she meets, explaining that while "everyone needs more tools," people resist being told what to do, and the Café's approach of shared learning rather than top-down instruction makes it uniquely effective.

*Family name has been changed for the purposes of sharing this story

future plans

From Conversations to Communities: Building The Leadership and Engagement Institute for Parents (LEIP)

Parent Cafés program has evolved into the Leadership and Engagement Institute for Parents (LEIP) in 2024, marking a significant step toward empowering parents, families, and community members throughout the District of Columbia.

LEIP encompasses Parent Cafés Community of Practice, Training Core, ECIN-owned Parent Café Decks, and various research initiatives.

The ECIN Community of Practice (CoP) for Family Engagement and Leadership was launched in April 2024. The group is a collection of individuals and organizations with the shared experience of completing training as Parent Cafe hosts, primarily by ECIN. The CoP provides peer to peer support, technical assistance, personalized guidance and Parent Café updates from the ECIN staff. The CoP also offers an opportunity to deepen collective understanding about family engagement and leadership and share family engagement and leadership strategies.

CoP members are confident and more likely to share resources with others. 71% report being extremely or “a lot” confident.

We're actively expanding our partner network to spread Parent Cafés throughout DC and surrounding areas while developing specialized training content on trauma, grief, injury prevention, and support for parents of children with disabilities.

In collaboration with Be Strong Families, ECIN is creating a Parent Cafés Economic Mobility Deck to integrate discussions on financial resilience and community resources. This work complements broader efforts with DC Action and CityFirst Bank to connect families with public benefits, workforce development, and mental health services.

Our vision extends beyond East of the River communities (Wards 7 and 8) to provide families throughout the District with opportunities to experience Cafés in diverse settings, strengthening our community impact through genuine parent leadership.

Key Publications and Presentations

Cruz M, Taylor M, Onyewadume C, Baylor R, Mitchell S, Bodrick N. ECIN Community of Practice: Advancing Health through Community Collaboration. American Public Health Association, Pre-conference Workshop:Community-Based Primary Health Care, Washington, DC (November, 2025)

Bodrick N, Baylor R, Taylor M, Pugh T, Johnson S. “Co-Creation with Community: Early Childhood Innovation Network Community of Practice.” REI Week 2025 at Children’s National hospital. Washington, DC (September 2025)

Taylor M, Cruz M, Onyewadume C, Baylor R, Mitchell S, Bodrick N. “ECIN Community of Practice: Enhancing the Support and Self-Efficacy of Parent Café Hosts.” GW SMHS Research Showcase, Washington, DC (April 2025)

Taylor M, Cruz M, Onyewadume C, Baylor R, Mitchell S, Bodrick N. “ECIN Community of Practice: Enhancing the Support and Self-Efficacy of Parent Café Hosts.” Children’s National Research Education and Innovation Week, Washington, DC (March 2025)

Mitchell, S., Holmes, L., Feinberg, A., and Bodrick, N. Who attends and appreciates Parent Cafés: A peer-learning program centered around family protective factors. Family Relations, 75(1), 84–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.70067

How Parent Cafés Reduce Perceived Power Differentials to Engage Caregivers in Adverse Childhood Experience Prevention Using the Protective Factors Framework. Families in Society. Online first October 7, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/10443894231191158

Mitchell, S., Holmes, L., Feinberg, A., Bodrick, N. Participant Endorsement of Parent Cafés: Variation by Demographics and Number of Cafés Attended. Poster presented at: Children’s National Hospital Research Week; April 17th, 2023; Washington, D.C.

Mitchell, S., Holmes, L., Feinberg, A., Bodrick, N. Participant Endorsement of Parent Cafés: Variation by Demographics and Number of Cafés Attended. Poster presented at: American Academy of Pediatrics; October 20th-24th, 2023; Washington, D.C.

Dafilou C, Feinberg A, Mitchell S, Baylor R, Caleb S, Altoonian K, Bodrick N. Professional Hats Aside: How Parent Cafés Reduce Perceived Power Differentials to Engage Caregivers in Adverse Childhood Experience Prevention Using the Protective Factors Framework. Poster presented at: American Public Health Association; November 12-15th, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia.

Contact Parent cafes Team