EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The El Paso Center for Children (EPCC) said it is finding success in helping Borderland parents strengthen their family dynamics and communication through its Parent Cafés.
“It’s like a therapy session, and I share. I’m an open book. I share a lot of my personal experiences, and I’ve noticed that with marginalized communities, they’re more prone to share,” Gabriela Carpenter, a family support specialist at the EPCC, said.
The Parent Cafés are small group gatherings among parents and caregivers that are overseen by trained family support specialists from the Center for Children.
The gatherings allow parents to connect, share experiences, and even explore proven nurturing parenting strategies to use at home, according to the EPCC.
The cafes are free to parents and caregivers as the program is federally funded. The EPCC said that 98 percent of people who have attended the cafes shared that the experience has helped them.
“And now it’s not as stigmatized. Right, that’s what we’ve kind of noticed, and especially now in Segundo Barrio, I go to all the schools that are down there, and a lot of the ladies have told me that it’s completely changed their lives,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said she has facilitated the parent cafes largely with El Paso mothers, with whom she has developed close connections over the past four years. But in efforts to reduce stigma around seeking help, the EPCC has also expanded the program, and it also offers group sessions exclusively to men.
“We know that parenting is hard and can be very challenging, but it can also be very rewarding. And the purpose of this program, we’re not here to build perfect fathers. We’re just here to be able to build fathers that are good enough to raise their kids. We want to build a community of fathers within our community that are here to support each other and to support their children and their families” Jose Alamillo, the fatherhood effect program manager at the EPCC, said.
“It becomes like a support group. Dads come in, we’re non-judgmental, and it gives them the opportunity to open up and talk about their life experiences. The challenges of parenting, the joys of parenting, because we know there’s a little bit of both in life,” Alamillo said.
Under the fatherhood effect program, the EPCC also offers a parenting curriculum for fathers and a financial upward mobility class.
To learn more about the program and where you can find the nearest cafe, you can click here.
And to learn more about all the programs offered at the EPCC, you can click here.
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