Panther CARES is hosting a Group Cafe in partnership with Birth & Beyond Family Resource Centers to provide resources to students with young children at Sacramento City College.
“We want this to be a welcoming environment for any student because there is a lot of stigma about receiving free services, so we want students to know it’s OK [because] our whole business is to help them graduate, help them transfer, help them complete a program. We are here to keep them in school,” said Linda Delgado, the supervisor at Panther CARES.
Previously known as Birth & Beyond Parent Cafe, the event was renamed to Group Cafe. Yvonne Smith Collins, program manager at a Birth & Beyond location, La Familia Counseling Center, explains the reason for this change.
“I noticed that one of the meetings that we had [there] were some people who didn’t have kids. They just wanted some support and had nowhere to go, and so we handed them off [at] career centers. We’re changing the ‘Parent Cafe’ because we don’t want them to think only parents can come,” Collins said.
Panther CARES will host two more Group Cafes on Friday, May 2 and Friday, June 6. The event aims to provide students with young children resources through Birth & Beyond Family Resource Centers, an agency that offers well-being services, growth and development, and civic engagement across nine neighborhoods in Sacramento.
City College students with young children must be enrolled in at least one 3-unit course to use the services offered at Panthers CARES. Birth & Beyond La Familia Counseling Center offers services without any requirements.
Courtney Bowie, student support assistant at Panther CARES, explains the resources that City College students with young children are directed to.
“I try to get them linked to some of our stuff on campus, so we have CalWORKS, they do stuff with parents, CARE will do stuff with parents, and then [Student] Health and Wellness,” Bowie said.
Panthers CARES can connect parents with Birth & Beyond if they are unable to attend the designated Group Cafe dates. Birth & Beyond also works with Sacramento County Health and Social Services, offering many resources for new parents.
“We help with home visitation, we come into [their] home and do child development and help straighten families mind, body and spirit. … We do car seat classes and we give them a car seat cause you can’t leave the house without a car seat and we also do safe sleep classes, which is very important,” Collins said.
Birth & Beyond La Familia Counseling Center will host Día del Niño, a week of celebration in honor of children, on Friday, April 25 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Upcoming events at La Familia Counseling Center that provide resources and opportunities for parents can be found on the website. Other services that Birth & Beyond offers parents include WIC for those in need of food, as well as Aetna for medical insurance.
Panther CARES also donates child wipes to the City College Child Development Center.
“I would like for them to take away for them to have a voice and feel like they’ve been heard and for us to provide the things they might need,” Collins said.
