Family support in COVID-19 times – 10 Family experts – 10 European countries – 10 webinars – Meet & Connect
We launched our Breakfast Bytes webinar series on family support in January 2021, with monthly webinars throughout 2021 to spread knowledge, to put the spotlight on the work of COFACE members who provide a wide range of family supports, and grow our international community of family support practitioners. The target group of the webinars is especially professionals working with families and children but is open to all (researchers, policy-makers, teachers, health workers, families, and more). It is more important than ever to connect professionals through transnational exchanges in order to tackle the social impacts of COVID-19 on families and children. This Breakfast bytes series focuses on diverse types of family supports in 10 countries, aiming to increase critical thinking and understanding of NGO-driven family support systems. Meet and connect with family professionals every month in 2021, for a 90-minute online webinar (from 9.30-11.00 Brussels time) to learn about family support and put your questions to our experts. See different webinars below and full programme here.
Context. 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 for 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 COVID-19 on families and children. We believe the European Family Lab can be 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.
Target group. In this first phase, we are launching the first stream of the European Family Lab: a breakfast bytes webinar series on family support to help family professionals meet and connect, aiming to build their capacity through transnational exchange and innovative solutions to ensure effective responses to families, all types without discrimination. Family professionals can be adult and child educators, policy-makers, researchers, teachers, nurses, psychologists, and many more. In a second phase, we plan to target families and children more directly to make the Lab user-friendly and directly useful in their daily lives.
Values. We hope to pool the great expertise out there in family support via the Lab to foster a great community of family practitioners who adhere to the values of COFACE of gender equality, non-discrimination, social inclusion, human rights, empowerment, and intergenerational solidarity, working for the health and well-being of all types of families.
