This Common Reference Framework for safe an inclusive activities is intended to provide a structured set of principles, standards, guidelines, and processes that provide a shared understanding and consistent approach for achieving goals, solving problems, or managing activities across the organisation. It acts as a blueprint or foundation for how COFACE operates in all its activities and how it works with key external organisations.
COFACE Core Values
COFACE – FAMILIES EUROPE is a network promoting the well-being, health and security of families and their members in a changing society. And serves as a trusted entity for family mainstreaming and for the voice/needs of families in the EU and beyond.
COFACE Families Europe is rooted in a set of six core values:
COFACE key activities
We advocate for families of all types without discrimination, bringing their voice to the table of European Union decision-making, ensuring that EU policies and legislation work in the general interest.
Furthermore, we support transnational exchanges between COFACE members (civil society organisations representing and supporting families) in the form of expert meetings, trainings, campaigns, conferences, webinars and more.
COFACE members are regularly updated and partners via the Families Corner newsletter, and interact with our social media communities.
Act NOW for families of today
COFACE Families Europe together with its members is very active in addressing the social challenges faced by families of today and advocating for policies to support their well-being. Here are ten specific actions (also available in Easy-to-Read language) which we would like to see integrated in the programme of the European Union from 2024 to 2029.
HIGHLIGHTED COFACE NEWS
Latest articles
Harmonising personal insolvency laws: Supporting over-indebted families across the EU
COFACE-Families Europe recognises the profound impact that personal insolvency laws have on families, particularly those in vulnerable situations, including families with children, families with disabilities, and low-income households. Read our recommendations
Children’s voices: New online survey launched by the European Commission
The European Commission launched a new online survey to hear directly from children and young people about their views on the European Child Guarantee.
Italian COFACE member offers welcoming, inclusive spaces for families with children aged 0 to 6.
One of COFACE Families Europe’s member organisations, Centro per la Salute delle Bambine e dei Bambini (CSB Onlus), has launched a new column entitled Words that Nourish.
Explore more of COFACE work
COFACE develops different types of publications
including position papers, studies based on feedback from families, briefs on family and EU policies, meeting reports.
Our latest publications include a list of economic principles to help build an economy that cares.
You and the EU
The European Union develops different actions and laws to ensure family and child well-being.
And we at COFACE try to shape these actions based on our core values. These actions include:
- key guidelines and laws for national governments to strengthen their social and family policies;
- different long-term action plans to support governments;
- funding mechanisms to boost NGOs and families.
European Family Lab
Family supports & resilience in challenging times
Family supports are an essential part of making social rights a reality, and civil society has grown over decades to create a wide range of supports to families and children to ensure health and well-being.
Now, more than ever, it is important to connect professionals in real time through transnational exchanges in order to tackle the social impacts of different transitions (digital, green, energy, health) on families and children.
We believe the European Family Lab is the place to connect them, serving as an innovation incubator for ideas and cross-country knowledge transfer to help family professionals deliver the best possible supports for Europeans. We are building the Lab virtual room by virtual room, with a newly launched Education&Training programme for upskilling of professionals and families: the L.I.N.K. Programme.
COMING UP with COFACE
Events
COFACE Disability annual platform meeting
COFACE Disability annual platform meeting
This year's meeting in Paris on 13-14 November 2025 aims to bring together COFACE members and external partners to share diverse insights and experiences related to the inclusive transition of care services for persons with disabilities. Save the date and register now!
European peer exchange: The House of the Child in Belgium
European peer exchange: The House of the Child in Belgium
For Universal Children's Day 2025, COFACE aims to put the spotlight on the Child Guarantee and its potential to drive positive change for children and their families. The aim of this peer exchange is to spotlight the Belgian family centre model referred to as the House ...
COFACE webinar: Communicating Social Europe in a changing social media landscape
COFACE webinar: Communicating Social Europe in a changing social media landscape
With this webinar we wish to collect feedback from COFACE members and partners on their interactions with the changing social media landscape, and the impact on communication about social rights.