Earlier this year, Sven Iversen, COFACE Vice President and Managing Director of Association of German Family Organisations (AGF) and Elena Gußmann, the project coordinator of the National Family Forum, presented the final publication “Support structures for families – objectives, access, services” to the Chairwoman of the ‘Family Affairs Committee’ in the Bundestag, Ulrike Bahr.
The National Family Forum is a network of 120 organisations that are committed to continuous cooperation and a comprehensive dialogue supporting family concerns. Their common objective is to actively assume responsibility for a family-friendly society. It is organized by AGF. The past two years the members intensely discussed how family support structures on the local level can help families, how they can be organized and what type of help the organization need themselves to be able to support families best.
The published report summarises the process and results of this two-year period.
The chair of the Council as well as the AGF representatives stressed the importance of political will in implementing the preventative measures recommended in the report. The effects of preventative measures are often difficult to evaluate immediately, only becoming apparent years later. The report also emphasises the need to view society as a whole, free from the monetary interests of individual departments.
The attendees also highly welcomed that for the next two years the National Family Forum will focus on discussing the topic “Family and climate”. They highlighted that climate has multigenerational impacts on young and old, stressed the disaggregated responsibilities and burdens for climate change and the need for action at the individual and societal level.
You can access the summary and main results of the report here.
Read the original article by AGF here
