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Join our Community! Get Involved Come grow with us Café au Play
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What's New at Café au Play These past months have been a busy and productive time for Café au Play! We finally secured the building and health permits for the Tabor Commons site, where Café au Play will be located, just in time for the renovation to begin in earnest. As you may have seen, the long-awaited removal of the buried gas storage tanks is now underway, and landscaping plans are being finalized. Also, the Oregon Tradeswomen have been donating one day a week to work on the exterior and interior renovation of the Tabor Commons building. Finally, we’ve been working with muralists John Early and Laura Bender to create the exterior wall mural and to prepare an application for a $10,000 RACC grant to defray the costs. On the fundraising front, we have received several important donations of cash and materials that have helped us make this significant progress. Also, our recent events, the semi-annual Pass it On Sale and the first annual Tabor Commons Spring Fair, have garnered over $4000 toward the project. Thanks to all for the generous support and community involvement... we can’t do it without you! Café au Play is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to open a community center coffeehouse for families and people of all ages. There will be activities for children and support programs for caregivers. Our mission is to help families combat the isolation that often comes with having young children by helping them create support networks and connect to local resources. Café au Play will be an enriching learning community for families - a place where families can connect to information, activities, and people. Proceeds from the coffee bar will provide funding for programs and services. Café au Play begins with the premise that one of the best ways to support children is to nurture connections among caregivers, promote the mental health of parents, and empower people of all ages to see themselves as both givers and receivers of resources. We want to foster spontaneous and genuine community among families in Portland, reaching out to underserved and isolated families. Unlike a typical community center, Café au Play will offer food and drink, a familiar and communal activity that promotes social interaction. And the activities, classes, and support groups offered at Café au Play will be available to all patrons on a drop-in basis. The coffeehouse will provide a welcoming, comfortable environment where children and adults can gather on a daily basis so over time, they can develop lasting friendships and exchange resources.
The participation of young adults and the elderly, who are sometimes segregated from young children, are particularly important to another aspect of our mission - to facilitate community between generations. The older person who reads to young children feels needed and appreciated. The young child who sees teenagers perform music or drama sees possibilities for herself. Our partnerships with local senior centers and schools will help establish relationships that simultaneously support families, young adults, and seniors. Read more about the Café au Play Model here |
The Spring Bookfair was a great success. The wrap-up is here. Café au Play has a new blog called A Place at the Table. We invite your comments and participation. Check out the video about Café au Play's future location at Tabor Commons on Wanna see some preliminary designs of our future home by Opsis and GreenWorks? Catch up with the latest details of the renovation here See more pictures from Café au Play events on Flickr And read the article on Café au Play in Oregon Humanities Magazine Why should you help? |
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