Early Catholic Family Life

What is Early Catholic Family Life?

ECFL was developed by Joanne and Alan Foley with the help of the Office of Marriage, Family and Life of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, EARLY CATHOLIC FAMILY LIFE (ECFL). It’s an exciting parent and child program that emphasizes the importance of putting faith at the center of family life. It is an excellent way to bring parents with young children into the life of the parish and to assist them to develop the spirituality their children were given at baptism.

• ECFL is a parent-child program aimed at an underserved but essential part of all parishes – parents with children 0-5 years old.

• ECFL is an eight session 2-hour class. Classes can be offered weekly, monthly, on week days, weekends or during evening hours. Each class includes early childhood, faith-based and fun activities for families.

• ECFL consists of a Parent-Child interaction component, a Circle Time, a Children’s Time and a Parent Discussion time.

• ECFL gives parents an opportunity to learn more about their Catholic faith, discuss faith with other adults, and build supportive relationships within the parish.

What does each session of the ECFL Program look like?

“This Class was a great experience. It really helped us open up and talk about how we are going to live out our faith with the kids.”

During the first hour of each session, Parents and Children interact in Faith-based activities. This play-together time ends with a teacher-lead circle. During the second hour of the session the children and the parents separate. The parents take part in the Parent Discussion Time while their children continue on in the early childhood classroom with a trained adult volunteer leader and assistants in The Child Play Together Time.