Love Is Not Enough To Keep Your Family Strong Campaign

FAQ

What is Love Is Not Enough?
Love Is Not Enough is Illinois’ parent-led effort to keep families strong. It is a public awareness campaign that puts parents front and center in strengthening families, and it is sponsored by Strengthening Families Illinois (SFI). SFI is spearheaded by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. It is a proven, cost-effective initiative to prevent child abuse and neglect that brings
together early childhood center staff, parents, child welfare agencies, and others to strengthen families with young children.

What are the core messages of Love Is Not Enough?
All parents love their children. But it takes more than love to keep a family strong. Love Is Not Enough is spreading six core messages to help parents meet the challenges of raising a family:

Be strong and flexible
Parents need friends
Being a great parent is part natural and part learned
We all need help sometimes
Parents need to help their children communicate
Give your children the love and respect they need

These messages are backed up with concrete examples of how parents have solved problems, gotten help, and worked hard to make sure their children are safe and their families are strong. All materials direct parents to www.keepyourfamilystrong.org, where they can link directly to organizations that can help.

How are these messages being spread?
The Love Is Not Enough messages are being spread through Parent Cafés (see below) as well as brochures, posters, a Web site, T-shirts, buttons, and other materials. Print materials are bilingual (English and Spanish), are produced on heavy gloss stock, and feature color photos of diverse parents.

How were the Love Is Not Enough messages developed?
The messages were developed in partnership with Illinois parents and Better World Advertising. Parents involved in SFI early childhood centers participated in several focus groups. They felt strongly that new research on protective factors, which prevent child abuse and neglect needed to be communicated to parents, from parents, in straightforward language.

Who started Love Is Not Enough?
Love Is Not Enough is a project of Strengthening Families Illinois. SFI, spearheaded by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, is a proven, cost-effective initiative to prevent child abuse and neglect that brings together early childhood center staff, parents, child welfare agencies, and others to strengthen families with young children.

The Parent Cafés were developed using the World Café model by SFI and the Illinois Family Partnership Network as a partner of SFI. IFPN is a group of Illinois parents and representatives from state agencies and organizations who are building more effective ways of involving parents in local and state decision making.

What is the research behind Love Is Not Enough?
The campaign’s core messages are based on research from the Center for the Study of Social Policy, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, showing that children are safer when their families are strengthened by six protective factors: (1) parental resilience, (2) an array of social connections, (3) knowledge of parenting and child development, (4) concrete support in times of need, (5) children’s social and emotional development, and (6) healthy parent-child relationships Click here to visit the Strengthening Families National Initiative

Parent Cafe

Love Is Not Enough Parent Cafés are part of Strengthening Families Illinois’ parent-led public awareness campaign, Love Is Not Enough to Keep Your Family Strong. Parent Cafés are a vehicle for parents to have their own conversations about the things that keep their families strong—because keeping families strong is the same as preventing abuse and neglect, and parents are responsible for keeping their children safe.

Love Is Not Enough Parent Cafés are a way for parents to engage other parents in building six Protective Factors:

Parent Cafés take place at early childhood centers and in other friendly environments. Over the course of three evenings, parents discuss three separate themes:

These themes incorporate all of the Protective Factors and provide a way for parents to apply them to their own families. Hosting and facilitating Love Is Not Enough Parent Cafés requires in-depth training and ongoing development. Below is some basic information about Love Is Not Enough Parent Cafés.

if you are interested in learning more about training or bringing Love Is Not Enough Parent Cafes to your program.

To learn more you can:

Spread the Word

Interested in getting involved with Love Is Not Enough? We need your help to promote what it takes to keep families strong for parents and providers in your community. There a lot of ways you can help make it happen:

Order Materials
Help get the message out by sharing brochures with parents and providers in your area. Brochures and posters are available free of charge in Illinois. Click on the links below to take a look at the general materials:

Promote a Parent Cafe or Family Event

LINE Media Kit
The Love Is Not Enough media guide containing information and step by step instructions on how connect with local press about a parent cafe or family event you are holding in your program or community.
LINE Parent Cafe Flyer

Click here for Spanish.

Host a Parent Cafe