Guam News - Guam News

Guam- Guam will be the first U.S. territory to bring in the Strengthening Families movement and establish Parent Cafes.

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The University of Guam (UOG) Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Education, Research and Service (CEDDERS) is partnering with Be Strong Families/ Strengthening Families Illinois Founder and CEO Kathy Goetz Wolf to train families and keep them strong by building on 5 protective factors.

The 5 protective factors include:

1. Parental Resilience

2. Social Connections

3. Concrete Support in Times of Need

4. Knowledge of Parenting & Child Development

5. Social & Emotional Competence of Children

Wolf says the Parent Cafe concept thrives on a welcoming and friendly environment where parents can have deep conversations about things that matter.

“Everybody's busy right now” said Wolf. “Everybody is working hard and trying to make ends meet. So, the opportunity to kind of stop and talk to other adults about your kids...it can be really emotional, cathartic and also people can learn a lot. And they don't learn so much from experts. They learn from each other.”

Guam CEDDERS Coordinator Elaine Eclavea adds that the training they conducted this week will encourage others to set up their own parent cafes and confront issues through conversation.

“The definitely is a need on Guam to look at how do we support families” said Eclavea. “There are families that we can bring together to start talking about what works within our families, what works when we interact with our children and share with each other. Then we can start to build some type of relationships with other families that can provide support.”

For more on Parent Cafes and the Strengthening Families movement, call Guam CEDDERS at (671) 735-2363.