A new series meant to offer support to parents struggling to connect with their children through educational speakers and workshops is scheduled to begin this evening at a North Long Beach church thanks to a collaboration between multiple organizations.

The Thrive Parent Cafe Friday Family Fun Night series is a free event every Friday, starting today, September 8 at 6:00PM with complimentary dinner served at 6:30PM. The series funded by a grant from the Department of Children and Family Services and South Bay Center for Counseling and hosted by Strengthening Families Network and the North Long Beach Christian Church, according to program coordinate Rev. Heather Miner.

“DCFS is only involved in a family’s life as long as it takes for whatever are the goals to be met,” Miner said. “When a family graduates out of DCFS they’d like them to never have to be part of the system again. They see value in churches as providing a larger community to provide support, connection, and love for families.”

The funds are given to faith based groups, who are reimbursed for expenses, to connect families with a larger support system, according to Miner.

“The Department of Children and Family Services was looking for a way to connect families who exit the system—to have a place where they could receive continued support and a larger family of support,” Miner said. “They offered grants to some of the [local] churches-especially those in the areas of need such as the 90805, to put on a program that would strengthen the family so we called this “Strengthening Families Network.”

Once presented with the grant, Miner dreamt up the idea of having a parent cafe, a place that would make it easier for parents to meet on Friday nights, providing them an opportunity to not focus on doing anything other than to connect with their children.

“They can [come] have dinner and some program elements that makes it easier to be with their children during that time and to have conversations with them,” Miner said. “And then that’s followed by a youth/children program, that works on community building and leadership skills.”

Thrive Parent Cafe will offer more than just dinner and activities for children, there will be educators and speakers giving parents an opportunity to learn how to talk to their children, support them through school and teach them lifelong skills.

“The parents are in a classroom learning about things like how love grows brains—which is the brain science of child development and how you don’t try to talk to your 2-year-old when they’re having a tantrum,” Miner said. “Basic things that they may [have] forgotten, or may not have ever learned…[We want to] encourage parents to be the best parents they can be.”

Although there have been other parent cafe events in Long Beach in the past, this event is on another level for NLBCC.

“[This is the] first time I’ve [had] so much support, so many people who will be there to help with the children — it’s really an interface effort,” Miner said. “It’s really a collaboration between nonprofit, the community and PCFF.”

Rev. Miner hopes that the big takeaway from this event is connection, parents connecting with other parents as well as connecting parents to their kids.

“Because we all get into our small silos and especially when you’re a parent, it’s hard to see the larger picture—and so by connecting parents, I hope that they will have a chance to increase their support network,” Miner said. “They will have other people to call, they will have some real practical strategies for understanding what is going on with their children at different stages of life.”

And for the children and youth, she hopes they learn to be part of something bigger, to be part of a larger community and to learn some skills for leading and to interact with new people—they will learn how to connect as well.

NLBCC welcomes all in the Long Beach community to their event including the LGBTQ community, Spanish translation will also be provided by Rev. Ramon Flores.

Thrive Parent Cafe Friday Family Fun will run from September 8 to October 27, from 6:00PM to 9:00PM. For more information for this event, please call: (562) 422-5833.

North Long Beach Christian Church is located at 1115 East Market Street.