Bella Bergeron has been working with children for 13 years, and when she moved to Portland five years ago it was her daily walks in Peninsula Park that inspired her to start Family Friend.
“I’d see caregivers chasing little ones around the playground or walking the paths with strollers, and I felt a wave of nostalgia for my days spent caring for kids,” she recalls. “On one particular day, in the midst of working towards a stressful deadline, I witnessed a really sweet, silly moment between a parent and child. Right then and there, I decided I needed to step away from my WFH job in creative production and fully pivot back toward supporting local families.”
“I knew I could do that as a nanny,” Bella adds, “but I also had a much bigger vision for building a community space that truly connects networks of care and likeminded folks right here in Portland.”
When Bella set out to make her vision a reality, she knew she wanted Family Friend to cater specifically to the LGBTQIA2s+ community.
“My lived experience as a queer caregiver has given me a front row seat to how heteronormativity, stereotypes, and outdated gender assumptions directly affect caregivers, families and children,” she explains. “Additionally, queer folks are disproportionately affected by many of the issues parents and caregivers face, such as perinatal mental health, poverty, healthcare provider bias, community exclusion, and more.”
“When I started building and dreaming about this project, I knew that offering ‘inclusion’ didn’t feel like enough,” Bella continues. “To many of us, spaces labeled as ‘inclusive’ can still feel othering or intimidating. I wanted Family Friend to go a step further and be a place where LGBTQIA2s+ families and caregivers are actively centered and celebrated.”
Family Friend is just that. It’s a queer parenting village that offers everything from childcare resources to community events. Read on to learn more about Family Friend and some of Bella’s favorite parks, restaurants, indoor play and LGBTQIA2s+-owned businesses to visit with the kids she nannies.
What do you think makes Portland the right place to start Family Friendly?
First off, because I love Portland! Beyond having a vibrant population of queer folks raising kids, Portland has naturally become a bit of a sanctuary destination for queer families moving to escape hostile laws, especially those threatening parents and children. I’ve met so many incredible families arriving here, totally new to town and looking for their village. People are constantly moving to Portland seeking safe, affirming, and maybe slightly radical spaces to land, and I want Family Friend to act as a direct bridge connecting them to that community.
Your main focus right now is building a network of nannies and childcare providers. Tell me a little more about how that’s going.
Yes! Right now, we are actively building a database of local, reliable nannies and childcare providers specifically tailored to support our queer parenting village. We’ll soon be launching access to this network and individualized matching services for families through a private membership model, and it’s going wonderfully so far! I am loving getting to know other local caregivers, hearing about their diverse experiences, and learning more about their care styles and philosophies. Through our early access forms, I’m also getting great insight directly from parents about what they need most, and I am so excited to start bringing these pieces together.
So far it’s been very validating and enlightening seeing what folks are looking for on both sides, and I’m so excited to see what change this might bring to the overall childcare space/our community. I have dreams of folks in our community forming collective care hubs, neighborhood cohorts, parent care swaps, nanny shares, and other more “alternative” forms of childcare. Family Friend will be at the heart of this as a connecting force that brings the people together who have similar views surrounding upbringing for their kiddos, and likeminded community for themselves.
You also host community events. How have they been going? Do you have any in the works right now?
Hosting community events has been such a fun and organic way to connect with local families and genuinely listen to what they need and want from a network like ours. I am so deeply grateful to everyone who has shown up, whether it’s sitting down to make crafts together, jamming along with me on a little musical instrument, or just stopping by our booth at a local festival or craft fair to say hi!
Since families have diverse needs, schedules, and locations, it is sometimes difficult to find an accessible time and place for everyone. To help combat that, we’re currently working on an app with an amazing parent from our community which we hope to launch alongside the caregiver network in the coming months. This app will be a private, members-only place for families in our community to chat and connect with one another to ask questions, form playgroups or care shares, and plan their own meetups.
Right now we are planning on hosting another Childcare Provider Craft + Chat event later this summer that’s just for childcare providers such as nannies, babysitters, postpartum doulas, etc to meetup and build community. We also want to put on some more classic fun, family friendly gatherings and collaborations, and have a few of those coming up this fall and winter! Stay tuned by following us on socials @familyfriendportland or joining our email list on our website for all the updates and announcements.
Family Friend is still in its beginning stages. What’s the ultimate goal/vision for the resource network?
We are definitely keeping it intentional! I am deeply committed to a slow, thoughtful launch so we can truly understand community needs and keep Family Friend grounded, but I certainly have some big dreams for down the road. Aside from our caregiver network, we are currently collaborating with a local parent to build a private community chat app for member families. This will make it much easier to connect with likeminded folks, coordinate shared care (like nanny shares or parent care swaps), and build lasting friendships… stay tuned for more on that soon!
The ultimate long-term vision is for Family Friend to be the ultimate go-to resource for queer folks starting (or restarting) with their families in Portland. I want it to be a nearly effortless way to tap into trustworthy childcare networks, local neighbor collectives, and welcoming neighborhood businesses. My biggest dream is that one day, as this community thrives, we can collectively work toward opening our own physical brick-and-mortar community space, a home base for workshops, family events, forming care collectives, and hosting drop-in hangouts for the village we are growing today.
What are your goals for the rest of the year?
By the end of 2026, my main goals are to have a large, solid roster of trusted caregivers in our system, successfully match a few local families with wonderful providers, to launch our app to families, and hopefully get a couple of families to team up on a successful nanny share or parent care swap! I also want to start dreaming up a second annual “Noon Year’s “ party, as well as a few more nanny events, all while continuing to tune into what our community needs to make Portland an even better place for queer families to raise their kids.
What’s the most memorable thing a family or caregiver has said to you about Family Friend?
One of the most touching things a parent told me recently was simply that their kids had grown up, but this would have been exactly what they needed! Hearing folks express how relieved they are to find a space that genuinely gets their unique family structure makes every single effort completely worth it.
That said, by far the most special and memorable moments I’ve had with Family Friend have been with the kids. Young children can have incredible natural social skills and senses, and children in our community have often encountered spaces where their parent(s) have been othered or even shamed, ridiculed, or even harmed for who they are. The sense of belonging a child has when their parent is accepted and celebrated specifically for their queer identity is palpable. Not only is it heart warming, but it’s something that motivates me to continue doing this work and creating spaces to celebrate LGBTQIA2s+ families!
What do you think is the most important thing families should know about Family Friend?
The most important thing families should know is that Family Friend was built by someone who truly understands the labor of love that is childcare. This isn’t a faceless corporation… it’s a mission driven project created out of a deep personal desire to see queer parents and their kids supported, protected, and celebrated. Whether you need a trusted pair of hands for childcare or just want to find your people, you belong here.
As a nanny I’m sure you are going out with kids all over Portland! What do you think makes Portland a good place to raise kids?
Oh, absolutely! Outings are the highlight of our weeks with the toddlers I care for, and the options here are pretty great. I think Portland is a great place to raise kids because they get the best of both worlds: sprawling nature, incredible parks, and outdoor recreation all within city limits, combined with the chance to grow up surrounded by a wonderfully diverse, generally pretty open-minded community from many different walks of life. I also hope that Family Friend will be a key factor in making Portland an even better place to raise kids for queer folks.
What are your favorite parks?
Honestly, all of them?! But if I really have to narrow down the rotation for kid-friendly adventures:
Favorite kid-friendly restaurants?
Favorite indoor play activities?
Rainbow Family Storytimes at Multnomah County Libraries
Community center pools
Taborspace (specifically for birdie beats music time!)
Mike Bennett Studio / Museums
What are some of your favorite local kid-friendly LGBTQIA2s+ owned businesses?
Such a great question, and I am always keeping my eye out to learn about more! Here are a few I love:
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