Faith Forming Families Network

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Fred Rogers '62 playing the piano at Pittsburgh Seminary

Established in 2024, the Faith Forming Families Network (F3 Network) is an innovation lab that rebuilds the neighborhood—one of mutual care and flourishing as envisioned by our most notable alumnus the Rev. “Mister” Fred Rogers ’62.

About the Faith Forming Families Network

One crucial challenge facing families and communities involved in the spiritual formation (faith) and moral development (character) of children is the disconnect between the parents, elders, and caregivers (families) who engage their children in the home, and pastors, teachers, and leaders who engage children in churches, schools, and social organizations.

Connection, conversation, and collaboration between those who engage children in the home and those who engage them elsewhere allows for effective spiritual formation and moral development. The Faith Forming Families Network reconnects families and communities as partners in the spiritual formation and moral development of young people, and empowers them to define the problems they face for themselves and to discern solutions they will implement together. The F3 Network invites its partners and participants to listen, learn, and lead with one another in order to pilot new programs and prototype new practices of spiritual formation and moral development for young people.

Partners

Our partners in this work include the following:

Theology and Ministry Fellowship

One initiative of the F3 Network is a post-doctoral fellowship in theology and ministry in partnership with the Fred Rogers Institute at St. Vincent College. This fellowship integrates, for the first time, the theological and educational areas of Fred Rogers’ legacy providing tools for parents, caregivers, congregations, and non-profit organizations. Learn more.

Project Funding

The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to help parents and caregivers share their faith and values with their children. With these grant monies Pittsburgh Seminary can collaborate on building upon the legacy of Mister Rogers’ most fundamental commitment: that “every child should be loved exactly as they are.”

Leadership

Lynne M. Napoleon Bassett as the inaugural director of the Faith Forming Families Network. “I am honored to be the first director of the F3 Network. Having the opportunity to use my education and experience in convening community groups and collaborating on family-centered, community-based solutions to support the spiritual and moral development of children is a calling very close to my heart. After years of working with families and community partners involved in the child welfare, juvenile justice, and mental health systems, I am excited to work in the spirit of the Rev. Fred Rogers, to ‘build a neighborhood’ around parents, caregivers, and children. In today’s complicated world, this is important and meaningful work,” said Bassett. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh (M.S., applied development psychology) and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (B.A., psychology).

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Faith Forming Families Network is part of the PTS Neighborhood Collaborative. Read our Event/Class Guidelines and Policies.