Do Good

By Sara Hall

Helping Families Thrive

As the phrase goes, it takes a village to raise a child, but whoever coined the term couldn’t have predicted 2020. And for families who faced numerous new challenges last year, it was even harder to live up to Maya Angelou’s famous quote, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive.”

The Family Thrive is a new e-learning platform and community designed to help families everywhere thrive together, explained co-founder and CEO Audra DiPadova Wilford.

“The goal is to create the first social online learning hub dedicated to supporting the health and wellbeing of all families,” she said during a phone interview. “Everybody told me it takes a village … [At The Family Thrive], we’ve got your back.”

It’s an online, holistic approach to family wellness, said Director of Marketing and PR Anne Watson during a phone interview.

The site features science-backed and evidence-based information and resources. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, particularly about health, Watson added, which is why it’s important to provide content that parents can rely on.

“We want to help [families] navigate those waters,” she said. “It can be overwhelming.”

The Family Thrive is built on four pillars: Nourish (food, recipes, cooking); flourish (stress reduction, mindfulness, emotional health); embody (sleep, exercise, whole body wellness); and connect (community, support from other parents, social well-being).

As a for-profit business, members pay a monthly subscription fee for access. Members can sign up

for different groups and forums, connect with other parents and experts (including doctors, nutritionists, and psychologists), and engage in short courses, video chats, and in-app events. They can receive recipes, sign up for cooking classes, and listen to informational podcasts. There will be a mixture of “quick bites” and in-depth high-quality content, including videos, infographics, and articles.

DiPadova Wilford’s vision is for The Family Thrive to become a trusted and empowering resource for families, a place they can go to feel engaged and mutually supported.

“So that thriving won’t seem like a lofty goal,” she said. “We want to focus on lifting people up and supporting families to live their best lives.”

It’s an honest and open community—both emphasized. There is no stigma when asking about certain topics, like what to do when a child throws a tantrum at the store, or sharing a story or concern about a sensitive subject, like the death of a child.

“This is the place where you can talk about it and seek support,” Watson said. “No topic is off limits and there is no judgement.”

The idea of The Family Thrive has been on the radar of its creators for years, but 2020 pushed it to fruition.

For DiPadova Wilford, it grew from a personal experience close to her heart. She and her husband, Justin, started the nonprofit MaxLove Project in 2011, three months after their then 4-year-old son, Max, was diagnosed with brain cancer. They consulted experts to find out what else they could do in addition to the standard treatment.

“We were focused on Max’s quality of life,” she said.

DiPadova Wilford, who attended culinary school, worked on modifying Max’s diet. Other parents started asking about it, so she offered cooking classes. They built a community and shared what they learned about complementary medicine. MaxLove Project took off and evolved into what it is today.

“We wanted to make sure no family ever felt alone,” she said.

Now 13, Max has beaten a lot of odds and is thriving while still actively fighting cancer.

With so much else going on, the idea that started as a cookbook was put on the back burner over the years. The team was finally creating it when 2020 rolled around and the project hit a wall.

Rather than let it vanish, they went virtual. Through research, the team found a gap between what

parents actually experience versus what they want and need regarding overall wellness, so a website with a wider audience was a good match. In addition to nutrition, they had other information they could share that would help family frustrations in that space.

“We realized we had an opportunity to build a social enterprise that can address this void,” DiPadova Wilford said. “[The Family Thrive] is what we’ve been growing ever since that moment.”

For more information, visit thefamilythrive.com and maxloveproject.org.