Office of Children's Services

Community Cafe

In the News

 

Community Cafes are a gathering of neighborhood residents and community members who participate in a series of guided conversations.  These conversations build community wisdom and parent voice to impact policy, practice and action to improve the lives of children and their families.  Topics include the five protective factors that need to be in place for a family to ensure their child's well being, leadership development and parent partnership with community. 

The Protective Factors are:

  • Parental Resiliency
  • Social Connections
  • Knowledge of Parenting/Child Development
  • Concrete Support in Times of Need
  • Healthy Social/Emotional Development

Community partners have included, but are not limited to, early learning and child care settings, schools, faith-based organizations, service programs and social service systems.

ACT Vision for Children and the Purpose of the Community Cafe

Alaska is a state that honors elder and family wisdom, values caring and responsive communities and treasures each and every child in the state.  Our vision is that by the year 2030 Alaska will be the safest state for a child to be born and raised and that each child will be health, safe and nurtured.

The Alaska Children’s Trust (ACT) was founded in 1988 with the mission to improve the status of children in Alaska by generating funds and committing resources to eliminate child abuse and neglect. All fifty states and the District of Columbia have Children’s Trust Funds.

As a strategy to reach its vision of a safe and nurturing state to raise children by the year 2030, the ACT formed a Steering Committee to guide the development of a statewide plan for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. With the assistance of the National Alliance of Children’s Trust and Prevention Funds, the Alaska Children’s Trust and a diverse Steering Committee comprised of tribal leaders, nonprofit organizations, advocates, families and government agencies have begun a dialogue about how to restore, and build upon the collective community wisdom about keeping families strong and connected. 

The ACT and the Steering Committee explored the factors that contribute to safe and healthy children and considered ways that  communities could build on their strengths and become more responsive to the needs of children and families.  It was decided that a lengthy, traditional spiral bound document was not the approach they wanted to take. A wide net was cast to engage families, elders, community groups, advocates, tribal councils and others in a visioning process where collective wisdom was the priority. 

Read more about the visioning process in Call to Action. The Alaska CC Kit is the toolkit on Alaska's Community Cafe' Practice: Changing the Lives of Children through Conversations that Matter.