The Family Cafe

09/12/2025

The Family Cafe invites you to a FROM webinar, Building and Strengthening a Coalition for Effective Advocacy, on Wednesday, October 8th, from 10:00 am to 11:30 am. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xT2cn34kSBuAeoO-CglzWA

Building a strong coalition for your priority issues is important for effective advocacy. Attend this webinar to learn the components of a strong coalition, how to build and strengthen a coalition, and examples of strong coalition advocacy in action. Also, you will receive tools to help you build and strengthen your coalition and identify the next steps you wish to take. Whether you are already leading or part of a coalition, or looking to start one, this webinar will give you insight and tools to make a strong impact as you prepare for the 2026 state legislative session and local advocacy.

Presenter Mary Kingston Roche is an experienced policy leader and advocate who has effectively led advocacy campaigns and built and strengthened coalitions over the past 15 years. She will share her experience and insights from her advocacy and coalition-building at the federal, state, and local levels with attendees along with tools and strategies she has developed and learned from coalition-building.

With legislative committee meetings starting next month and the legislative session starting soon in January, we encourage you to register for this webinar on how to build and strengthen a coalition for effective advocacy to help you be prepared. More than ever, we need to have strong coalitions at the state and local levels to build champions and secure policy and funding wins, and this webinar will give you insights and tools to do this-whether you are already active in a coalition or looking to start or join one.

Register today at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xT2cn34kSBuAeoO-CglzWA and join us on October 8th!

09/12/2025

Let’s get to Givin’ and Groovin’! 💃🕺 Cast your vote now! 🗳️

Since 1998, families have shared how The Annual Family Café has changed their lives through new resources and lasting connections. To keep it going, we need your help! ❤️

Join us for this year’s Give & Groove to support our mission and share your input on our next Saturday Night Dance Theme!

Every $1 raised = 1 vote for your favorite theme, and the winning theme will be used for the dance at The 28th Annual Family Café. 🪩

🔗 CAST YOUR VOTE NOW: https://bit.ly/GiveAndGroove2025

To make things even more exciting… We've got fun celebrations planned for every time we reach a Milestone! Check them out below. ⬇️

• $750 - Milestone #1: A dramatic reading of our donor list! At the first Milestone, Jeremy will, in his best Shakespearean English, do a dramatic reading of everyone who has donated so far!

• $2,500 - Milestone #2: Youth Council Lip Sync Battle! When we hit our second Milestone, some of our Florida Youth Council members will do an EPIC lip sync battle!

• $3,500 - Milestone #3: See Uncle Paul get down! When we hit our third Milestone, we'll have everyone's favorite chef do a viral dance challenge in front of the Florida Capitol!

• $5,000 - Milestone #4: Last but definitely not least, when we hit our final goal, our team will get a good old-fashioned pie-in-the-face from The Family Café's board chair!

Follow along on our social media to catch each of these Milestone rewards.

You’ve got two weeks to get your favorite dance theme to the top! Share this post with your Family Café crew and may the best team win. 🥇

[Image description: A design shows a red background with the title “The Family Cafe Give & Groove” at the top. The subtitle is: "September 12 - September 28.” Below are four white boxes with images and titles: a clip from Minecraft titled “Minecraft,” Taylor Swift during a performance titled “Taylor Swift,” The characters Fiona, Shrek, Puss in Boots, and Donkey titled “Shrek,” and the characters Rumi, Mira, and Zoey titled “KPop Demon hunters.” Below this section is a progress bar highlighting the Milestones for the fundraiser.]

Donate to vote for next year’s Dance Theme!

09/11/2025

Check out a new webinar on family mental health from CAFE TAC!

Join the First Session in CAFE TAC’s Emerging Adult Series / Latest News, Recovery, Trainings, Webinars, Youth and Emerging Adults / By Jeremy Countryman Join CAFE TAC for the first webinar in our new Empowering Your Emerging Adult Series:Exploring Identity, Self-Discovery, and Social ConnectionsT...

09/10/2025

And our theme choices are…. 🌟

MINECRAFT ⛏️
TAYLOR SWIFT 🎤
SHREK 🧌
& KPOP DEMON HUNTERS! 😈

Not only does your support give you a chance to vote for the dance theme, it also helps us continue making The Annual Family Café even better. ❤️ We’re so proud to have served thousands of families across Florida since 1998 and can’t wait to create opportunities for even more magical moments at the Café for years to come.

Get excited… And share with friends! Voting starts THIS FRIDAY! 🗳️⌛

[Image description: A graphic design shows a red dancefloor background with the title “The Family Cafe Give & Groove” at the top. The subtitle reads “September 12 - September 28.” Below are four white boxes with images and titles as follows: a clip from the game Minecraft and the title “Minecraft,” Taylor Swift during a performance and the title “Taylor Swift,” The characters Fiona, Shrek, Puss in Boots, and Donkey with the title “Shrek,” and the characters Rumi, Mira, and Zoey with the titel “KPop Demon hunters.”]

09/08/2025

Are you ready to Give & Groove? 💃🕺 We’re very excited to announce a new way to support The Annual Family Café and the incredible families who attend – by voting on our Saturday Night Dance theme!

Starting THIS FRIDAY, every $1 donated = 1 vote for your favorite Saturday Night Dance theme. You can donate to vote from September 12 - 28th, and the winning theme will be used for the dance at The 28th Annual Family Café!

Check back in on Wednesday to see what this year’s dance theme choices are! 🪩

Through this fundraiser (emphasis on the FUN), we hope to continue growing and expanding the impact of The Family Café. A huge THANK YOU goes out to all the individuals and organizations who have supported The Family Café throughout the years. Without people like you, we wouldn’t be able to provide such a robust, free event for individuals with disabilities. ❤️

[Image description: A graphic design shows a red dancefloor background with the title “The Family Cafe Give & Groove” at the top. The subtitle reads "Donate to vote for next year's dance theme!" Below are four white boxes with blurred images and question marks on the labels. The top left is mostly green with a hint of teal and tan. The top right is pink and orange with a blurred figure in the center. The bottom left is green and blue, with multiple blurry figures. The bottom right is mostly blue with three blurry figures and hints of purple. The bottom line of text reads, “September 12 - September 28, 2025.” ]

08/25/2025

Presenter Interviews: Jamie and Gabrielle from Education Advocates of America! 🍎

Did you know Florida has a scoring system that is used to determine funding
levels for students with disabilities? This is called the Matrix, and it was the focus of Jamie and Gabrielle’s presentation at The 27th Annual Family Cafe. 🧑‍🍳

For more information about the Matrix, why it matters, and what you can do as a parent, including a link to schedule a free consultation with Jamie and Gabrielle, use the links on our Linktree to access the presentation materials and a copy of the Matrix: https://linktr.ee/thefamilycafe 🔗

For even more great information, visit the Education Advocates of America website at www.eduamerica.org. 🔗

08/25/2025

08/25/2025

It's that time of year again! 🎣
Hands Helping Anglers is back - Sept 27, 2025 and angler registration is NOW OPEN!

Register here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0948A8A62BA0FCC43-57684895-hands #/

For those who don't know, Hands Helping Anglers is a program to take people with disabilities out to experience boat fishing. Food beverages and bait will be provided for an awesome day out on the water!

Space is limited. Anglers are selected on a first-come, first-serve basis so register today!

08/20/2025

Photobooth photos from The 18th Annual Youth Summit are HERE! 📸

Click the link to find YOUR Youth Summit photobooth photos!

🔗: bit.ly/YouthSummit18Photobooth

08/15/2025

Didn’t get to attend The 27th Annual Family Cafe? Don’t fret! We’ve got great resources for you to learn from, too!

We want everyone to be able to benefit from the information our incredible presenters bring to The Family Cafe every year, so starting next week, we’ll be sharing videos from some of our presenters with all the information you missed if you didn’t get to attend this year.

Turn on post notifications so that you don’t miss a thing! 🔔

08/13/2025

Help us wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to The Family Cafe’s President and Founder Lori Sanczel Fahey! 🎂🥳

Thank you so much, Lori, for the many years of dedication and hard work you have devoted to this organization and the disability community of Florida as a whole. We hope your birthday is as spectacular as you are! ❤️