Your Key to the Village

Launched in 2006 Urbanplaydates is the premier virtual village for parents and caregivers who are raising children of color. Our FREE website was created to be an interactive, easy-to-use Internet community and comprehensive source of information.

Founder and CEO, Njeri Santana wanted to create a broad-based effort that brought a wide-array of viewpoints and perspectives. “I knew that there were a host of “mom” websites, in fact, I joined many of them. But, I still didn’t feel totally apart of the group. While there are universal issues in raising children the reality is that there are unique issues in raising children of color. I also found that these “mom” sites had limited participation from fathers, family, and friends.” The reality is that it truly does take a village to raise a child and I wanted to develop a place where the village could connect.

Urbanplaydates’ mission is to provide visitors with a key to that village that opens doors to resources, information, tools and support for parents and caregivers. It is a village where you can share opinions, forge friendships, network and learn about each other's similarities and differences. The village is open to parents and caregivers who are male, female, young, old, separated, divorced, widowed, single, grand, foster, stay at home, new or have adopted. Whew! That should cover everybody. The ultimate goal of Urbanplaydates is to facilitate a community where real issues facing individuals and families of color are discussed in an open and frank way.