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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Program P: A Manual for Engaging Men in Fatherhood, Caregiving, and Maternal and Child Health

REDMAS, Promundo, EME, 05 Mar 2014

The Program P Manual is a resource developed as part of the global MenCare campaign that identifies best practices on engaging men in maternal and child health, caregiving, and preventing violence against women and children, through the lens of gender equality. Though the main focus of Program P is to engage men via the public health sector, the manual also provides tools and resources for individuals and organizations that want to work more generally with men as caregivers and fathers.

Fatherhood in the Health Sector: A Guide for Health Professionals on Engaging Men

REDMAS, Promundo, EME, 05 Mar 2014

This section is the first of three in Program P: A Manual for Engaging Men in Fatherhood, Caregiving, and Maternal and Child Health.

Engaged Fatherhood: Group Education for Fathers and their Partners

REDMAS, Promundo, EME, 05 Mar 2014

This section is the second of three in Program P: A Manual for Engaging Men in Fatherhood, Caregiving, and Maternal and Child Health.

The Right of Boys and Girls to a Family. Alternative Care. Ending Institutionalization in the Americas

Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, 05 Mar 2014

This report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) analyzes children’s right to live and be raised by their families, and establishes the resulting obligations for States when it comes to supporting and strengthening families’ ability to raise and care for their children.

Country Care Review: Sao Tome and Principe

Better Care Network, 04 Mar 2014

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations for the Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted as part of its examination of Sao Tome's combined second to fourth periodic reports at the 64th Session of the Committee held between 16 September to 4 October 2013.

Country Care Review: China

Better Care Network, 04 Mar 2014

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations for the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilites.

Save the Children: Position Statement on Families

Save the Children, 28 Feb 2014

This position statement by Save the Children highlights the central place of families in numerous international legal instruments and how the concept has been understood. It also clarifies its own understanding of families and reviews key provisions under international law regarding their crucial role and responsibilities, and that of States towards them.

Children's Reintegration: Longitudinal study of children's reintegration in Moldova

Dr Helen Baños Smith, 28 Feb 2014

This important report documents a 22-month longitudinal study of the reintegration of children in residential care in Moldova.

Better Care Network Strategic Plan 2014 - 2017

Better Care Network, 28 Feb 2014

In 2013, Better Care Network (BCN) initiated an important process of developing a new Strategic Plan identifying the main strategic focus for its work over the next four years (2014-2017). The plan is based on an analysis of BCN’s achievements to date, the strategic areas in which BCN can have most impact in the future by working with key actors to strengthen the response to children without adequate family care.

The UN Commission for Social Development Resolution on the 20th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family

UN Commission for Social Development, 18 Feb 2014

The UN Commission for Social Development (CSocD) held its 52nd session in New York on the 11-21 February 2014. As part of its mandate, it held discussions in observance of the 20th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family and drafted a resolution to be adopted by the UN Economic and Social Council.