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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Foundations: Child and Adolescent Development: Resource Pack

Action for the Rights of Children, 2001

Resource pack for a course in child and adolescent development. Emphasis on identifying threats to childhood development and strategies to promote development in adverse conditions. Includes facilitators notes, participatory exercises, overheads, and handouts.

Child Needs Assessment Tool Kit

N/A, 2001

A comprehensive tool kit providing a methodology, questionnaire and software for assessing the needs of young children affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Used to help design of service programs, secure funding, and monitor and evaluate programs specifically targeting the needs of young children and their families.

Family Resource Centers: Vehicles for Change

The California Family Resource Center Learning Circle, 01 Apr 2000

The purpose of this document is to define the key characteristics and activities of quality family resource centers, describe how they function as a vehicle for change for families and communities, and help policymakers and funders “make the case” for the family resource center approach to providing family support services.

The Problem of Street Children in Africa: An Ignored Tragedy

Peter Kopoka, 2000

Examines initiatives taken to protect street children in Africa. Emphasis on increasing community and NGO participation in local responses.

The Impact of the Bolivian SOS Social Centers

Nancy Ardaya Salinas, 2000

Extensive report on the institutional- and family-level impacts of SOS Social Centers in Bolivia. Includes recommendations and lessons learned.

Prevention of Street Migration: Resource Pack

Consortium for Street Children, 1999

A summary of strategies to prevent the migration of children to the streets as presented at a 1999 conference in Ireland.

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A Case Study of Legal Reform in Uganda: As Part of a Strategy for Promoting Community-Based Care

John Parry-Williams , 1993

This paper describes a case study examining the legal reforms made in Uganda in the area of community-based care.

Keeping Families Together, a short film by One Sky Foundation

One Sky Foundation,

In this video, One Sky Foundation describes its work to strengthen families and keep children out of children's homes in the Thai-Burma border district of Sangkhlaburi.

What We Can Do About Toxic Stress

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University,

This infographic from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University shares some suggestions for building resilience and strength in families and communities to mitigate the impacts of toxic stress.

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Protective Factors Action Sheet

The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP),

This guide from the Center for the Study of Social Policy's Strengthening Families project aims to provide case workers and practitioners with information on: building parental resilience and capacity, enhancing and leveraging parents' social connections, providing information on child development, connecting parents to resources, offering concrete support to parents in times of need, and more.