FMs4Ms Network

How “Firenze Moms 4 Moms Network” came to be:

When I moved to Florence, Italy in Dec 2002, I was lost. I had a 1 year old and was determined to find some friends for him. I found out from an Italian friend of mine that there was a playgroup at the St. James Church.  This church is an Episcopal Church that has mass in English and had a playgroup every Wed morning.  The Children’s Lending Library, which actually is a separate entity from the Church, is located in their undercroft.  So I thought it would be a great place to meet some people that spoke English.

Despite the fact that I was not Episcopalian and didn’t speak Italian, I decided to go anyway to St. James Church Wednesday morning playgroup.  At times, this group ranged from 2 moms to sometimes 10.  This was a great meeting place until the church decided they didn’t want the playgroup there anymore.  A small group of us decided to move the playgroups to our homes.  This is around the time when Monday Morning Moms and Tots Group was created.  Eventually the church let us back in on Monday mornings and that is when I decided to publish it on the web with a website.  I wanted all moms to be able to find this group.

In 2004, I wanted to move beyond the playgroup and start to give out information to the moms about all the things of Florence.  In moving here from the US, I had to do lots of documents, find doctors, etc.  I realized how hard it was to do all these things, especially since it was all in Italian.  I felt like this was a good thing to put on the website for any mom that is moving here and had to deal with adapting to the culture and dealings of this new environment.  It is also when I created the website Firenze Moms 4 Moms Network.  I set up the domain and got to work developing pages of lots of helpful information, but the actual networking didn’t come until later.

The first playgroup that was listed was the Monday Morning Moms and Tots Group at St. James.  Knowing that there had to be other moms not attending St. James, but would like to meet other moms with children that same age; I set up a web form to collect names and areas in hopes to hook moms up with other moms.  The names started to roll in and my small network was beginning to evolve.

My website grew and grew as more and moms participated in giving information that was useful to the other members.  Each year the membership list grew and grew. Moms were coming out of the woodwork. Some were already living here for many years, along with moms that were new and coming here from all around the world.

Two years after I had started this website and connecting moms, I became really ill with a life threatening disease.  In 2006, I was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease.  With this disease, I was put on massive therapy to try to put it into remission.  During the period of spring 2007 to winter 2009, things in the group sort of slowed up and almost came to a stop.  I was about to close the website when, many moms stated that the group was the best thing that ever happened to them.  I thought Ok don’t close it instead put my energy into it and that would take my mind off what I was going through.  So I kept it open and struggled to keep it going.

In 2009, I was starting to feel a lot better.  I was and still am on lots of meds, but I was able to focus on getting this group to where I thought it could be.  Because of all the publicizing of the Network, we started to get a burst of new members.  We were hitting the 200 member mark.  I was surprised and overwhelmed.  We were not only getting members from Firenze, but all over Tuscany.  I started to put the members into groups by areas.  I hooked up with some already existing groups in Prato, Pistoia, and Lucca, calling them our sister Networks.

With all these new members and lots of little children, I helped some moms arrange playgroups all over the town so that new moms had a place to go and meet up.  This was wonderful to have a list of playgroups that were all over and not religiously-oriented.  I have always had a strong feeling on opening up the network activities to everyone.  We even had a few dads join that were willing to participate. Though to date I have never seen them at any of the Moms’ Mingles.

Today, we are a network of 200 members, have a few organized events, produce seasonal newsletters, and have about 5 playgroups that are active.  Firenze Moms 4 Moms Network was setup to assist English-speaking mothers in Florence and the surrounding areas and that is what it is doing.

Nevertheless, I am constantly looking to improve and bring to the moms the best network possible.  I am devoted to organizing more outings and activities for both moms and their children of all ages.  More involvement from the members whether it is writing an article for the News Letter, organizing or attending the events, and even just giving some input is always welcome.  Your help and input keeps the group flourishing!  So if you have a thought contact me at infotiscali@firenzemoms4moms.net .

FMs4Ms would not exist without your help!

Written by Kimberly Vanzi

FMs4Ms Founder/ Web Designer