About
KidzbridgeAs many of us experienced, maintaining our careers while focusing on our children and families has not been easy since March 2020. Many employees were told to work from home, schools went online, and others deemed “essential” were required to leave their school-aged, online-educated children during the day.
This dislocation at the outset of the Covid-19 Pandemic was felt by all. Being required to work from home and simultaneously navigate children – ensuring they are occupied and doing their virtual schooling, trying to meet work deadlines, and maintaining our sanity is a tall order. Togetherness is great, but having some space is also helpful.
It soon became evident, that other people had the same issue. Lisa, one of our founders, is an essential worker at the Department of Defense. And, even though her third child was already in middle school, she could not be left alone completely. So, she organized a group of other parents – with children in her daughters’ classes and sports – who could share the “supervision” burden on a rotating basis. Hence, Kidzbridge was born.
Kidzbridge was founded as a one-stop solution to building the community pods (Co-Pods) necessary to bridge the gaps we are all currently experiencing as we try to care for, educate, and develop our children while at the same time continuing to be productive at work and maintaining our careers. No one should have to choose between their children and the job or career that provides the means to take care of them.
Lisa recruited Nathalie, Jonathan and Ken to turn the concept into a web-site to help other parents faced with the same challenges.
Our Mission
What We Do
Kidzbridge aims to provide the means by which parents can pair up with similarly situated parents to find solutions to their needs – whether it be in the creation of a Co-Pod for school, a Co-Pod for extra- curricular activities or to find other solutions to the daily disruptions brought on by Covid-19.
Kidzbridge does not create the solution but it provides the mechanism by which the solution is created. That is, Kidzbridge will not create any Co-Pods, parents will have to do that. But the Kidzbridge algorithm will match parents with other parents with similar needs. It will be up to each parent to decide if the other parents/families meet their needs and they are sufficiently comfortable having their children in other parents’ homes.
Kidzbridge will also provide links to a variety of service providers for families – such as food take-out, tutors, on-line schools and so forth.
Mission Statement
To create the means by which parents can connect with other parents in their communities to solve the critical coverage issues created by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Values
Community-focused, innovative, resourceful, trustworthy, reliable, and bold.
Kidzbridge is committed to serving the entire community. Kidzbridge will make scholarships available for parents who cannot afford the fee and will encourage alternative arrangements for parents whose home or apartment may not be suitable to host other children.
Good things happen when people can work, take care of families, and follow their dreams.
Meet the Founders:
Lisa Arfaa
Inspired and encouraged at an early age to always strive to reach her greatest potential, Lisa has known her work would include encouraging others to be their best and give their most, so they too could affect positive change in the world. Lisa practices and shares the leadership principles she has learned and honed over the past two decades as a mother, mentor, coach, and executive.
Lisa is the Senior Advisor to the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supporting the Vice Chairman’s initiatives to advance quality of life issues so vital to the readiness of our Force, including but not limited to: diversity & inclusion, spousal employment, healthcare, suicide prevention, childcare, privatized housing, and sexual harassment and assault prevention.
Most recently she was the Vice President of Advancement at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security while acting as the Principal of Lysi, a management and fundraising firm offering solutions-based consulting and advisory services to help clients overcome challenges and achieve their strategic objectives. During her tenure there, she was asked to serve as the President & CEO of Physicians for Peace, a global health nonprofit whose mission of “teach one. heal many.” takes them to underserved communities all around the world to help build sustainable health care infrastructure so all have access to local, quality, self-reliant healthcare.
Previously, she worked in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors and acquired a record of success in conceiving, developing, nurturing, and executing initiatives. Lisa worked directly with former General Electric CEO Jack Welch on his mission to help companies improve the culture and business performance of their management teams.
Lisa’s experience also includes creating successful publicity, promotional and communications campaigns for various non-profit organizations; founding and managing The Potter Webster Group – a boutique fundraising firm; as well as serving in the Federal Government as a staffer to U.S. Congressmen and as an advocate lobbying Congress on health care issues.
Lisa holds a B.A. in Government from Smith College, an M.A. in Political Management from the George Washington University, and is finishing her doctorate in interdisciplinary leadership from Creighton University. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her family.
Jonathan Strum
An attorney with an international and national security background. He has served on numerous boards including the University of the West for 11 years and currently primarily Abraham’s River, a financial institution that aims to expand the amount of religiously-compliant financing available to those that may otherwise be under-served, to provide a series of religiously acceptable income-oriented investment options.
He is a self-described Jewish High Holiday Cantor (at Georgetown University a Jesuit sponsored institution), with expertise in Islamic Finance law, and served for 11years on the Board of a University of the West, a Buddhist sponsored university outside of Los Angeles. Early the Covid crisis, he had to deal with taking care of his 3-year-old grandson, while working on international arbitration.