Projects > Coffee and Family Education and Support (CAFES)

CAFES (Coffee and Family Education and Support) is a multi-family support and education intervention program for refugee families. It has been developed, implemented, and tested by a group of university scholars and community associates, including Americans, Bosnians, and Kosovars. It is a family strengths and resilience approach that is based upon the conceptual framework of Prevention and Access Interventions for Families. Analyses of the intervention support the feasibility and benefits of the intervention. The original CAFES intervention has been adapted and retested as TAFES (Tea and Family Education and Support) for Kosovar refugees, and Youth CAFES for Bosnian pre-teens and teens. Family interventions of this type are an underutilized but necessary means for addressing the suffering and difficulties of refugee communities. A mental health services approach focusing on issues of access and prevention provides the intellectual framework for building innovative family-focused interventions and for leaning more about how to help refugee families. The principal investigator is Stevan Weine. Co-investigators are Suzanne Feetham, Robert Gibbons, Robin Mermelstien and Lisa Razzano. Yasmina Kulauzovic is the project manager and John Rolland is the training consultant. Project staff are Sanela Besic, Alma Lezic, Aida Mujagic, Jasmina Muzurovic, Amer Smajkic, Dzemila Spahovic, and Lolita Mrdanovic. CAFES is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health ROI MH59573-01 and by the University of Illinois at Chicago.