Parenting Support

Families will require support when faced with problems they are unable to overcome on their own. Ideally support should come from existing networks, such as extended family, religious leaders, and neighbours. Where such support is not available or sufficient, additional family and community services are required. Such services are particularly important for kinship, foster and adoptive caretakers, and child headed households in order to prevent separation and address abuse and exploitation of children. It is also vital for children affected by HIV/AIDS and armed conflict, and those children living on the street.

Parenting support services are typically provided by social and community paraprofessionals. They focus on the individual needs of a child or family, in order to address and overcome issues which may lead to family separation or harm to the child. Such services should be provided within the context of case planning, beginning with an assessment of the child and family situation. By assessing the need first, an appropriate set of services can be offered, such as day care provision, parenting support, household economic strengthening, or psychosocial referral.

Day care services are particularly important for caretakers who are overwhelmed as a result of ill health, cannot provide adaquate care because they need to work, or who are isolated within the community. It provides an excellent opportunity for children to socialise with others, and can offer additional protection and education.

Parenting support provides caretakers with an opportunity to talk about their difficulties, and learn additional techniques for meeting their child’s developmental and relationship needs. It can enable caretakers to cope with behavioural problems, and address abusive parenting techniques, thereby reducing the need for family separation and improving the incidence of successful family reunification.

The literature in this section contains information on family support programmes for vulnerable children, including day care and parenting support.

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Good Practices from Positive Discipline and Family Strengthening Interventions

Parenting in Africa Network, 2016

This document highlights examples of good practices in parenting and family strengthening interventions based on evaluations of programs and initiatives throughout Africa.

Lighting up young brains: How parents, carers and nurseries support children’s brain development in the first five years

Jerome Finnegan - Save the Children, 2016

This report from Save the Children outlines the rapid development that takes place in the brain in the early years of life and the crucial role that caregivers play in supporting this development.

Utilising Group Work in The Implementation of Family Preservation Services: Views of Child Protection Social Worker

Josane Van Huyssteen, Marianne Strydom - Social Work, 2016

This paper discusses the style and efficacy of child preservation services for the purpose of reducing child abuse and neglect.

Report of the Expert Group Meeting on "Family Policy Development: Achievements and Challenges”

Expert Group Meeting, United Nations, Department for Economic and Social Affairs, 31 Dec 2015

The United Nations, Department for Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Social Policy and Development released the Final Report of the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on "Family Policy Development: Achievements and Challenges” which was produced after the 14-15 May 2015 EGM. The meeting focused on changing families, family law reforms, violence in the family and their impact on family policy development.

Promoting birth parents' relationships with their toddlers upon reunification: Results from Promoting First Relationships® home visiting program

Monica L. Oxford, Maureen Marcenko, Charles B. Fleming, Mary Jane Lohr, Susan J. Spieker - Children and Youth Services Review, 08 Dec 2015

This study reports on the findings from a randomized control trial of a 10-week home visiting program, Promoting First Relationships® (Kelly, Sandoval, Zuckerman, & Buehlman, 2008), for a subsample of 43 reunified birth parents of toddlers that were part of the larger trial.

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Implementing child maltreatment prevention programmes: what the experts say

Katherine A. Hardcastle, Mark A. Bellis, Karen Hughes and Dinesh Sethi, 01 Dec 2015

This handbook authored by the World Health Organization Europe and Liverpool John Moores University – based on a series of interviews with the world's leading experts on preventing child maltreatment – provides practical information to policy-makers, practitioners and others on implementing prevention programmes. The handbook describes key principles for selecting and delivering programmes, and important practical considerations, including resources and technical support.

Keeping Children in Healthy and Protective Families: Operational Research Project in Cambodia, Rwanda and Uganda

USAID, 01 Nov 2015

This two-page brief from USAID describes the “Keeping Children in Healthy and Protective Families” project, a project that is part of 4Children that “focuses on strengthening family care among households at high risk of children separating or where children can be reintegrated after having been placed in residential care.”

Faith to Action Initiative Webinar 3: Strategies for Strengthening Family Care

Faith to Action Initiative, 10 Oct 2015

This webinar from Faith to Action Initiative presents key strategies for expanding the capacity of families to care for orphans and vulnerable children.

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World Family Map 2015: Mapping Family Change and Child Well-Being Outcomes

Child Trends and Social Trends Institute, 22 Sep 2015

This annual report of the World Family Map Project shares the latest data on 16 indicators of family structure, family socioeconomics, family processes, and family culture in multiple countries as well as an original essay focusing on one important aspect of contemporary family life.

Early motherhood: a qualitative study exploring the experiences of African Australian teenage mothers in greater Melbourne, Australia

Mimmie Claudine Ngum Chi Watts, Pranee Liamputtong, and Celia Mcmichael - BMC Public Health, 10 Sep 2015

This research aimed to solicit the lived experiences of African Australian young refugee women who have experienced early motherhood in Australia.

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