COFACE Families Europe

COFACE Disability annual platform meeting
2025-11-13 08:00 - 2025-11-14 17:00 (Europe/Brussels)
COFACE Disability annual platform meeting
Paris, 13-14 November 2025
This year’s meeting 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. The discussion will dive into what this transition concretely entails on the ground, what are the challenges and opportunities in facilitating it, the presentation of local best practices, as well as insights into the best way to integrate families in its realisation. The discussion aims to encompass developments at European, national, and regional levels.
This meeting is for COFACE members only.
SAVE THE DATE and register by contacting Sebastian Gonzalez sgonzalez@coface-eu.org

European peer exchange: The House of the Child in Belgium
2025-11-19 10:00 - 12:30 (Europe/Brussels)
European peer exchange
Focus: The House of the Child in Belgium
19th November 2025 – 10.00-12.30 CET online
Background
Europe is facing a range of challenges, from an ageing population to increasing financial insecurity, growing inequalities and evolving work practices. While policymakers know that adapting to these changes is key to a resilient European economy, this is usually only discussed in relation to individuals. What’s left out of these conversations is families. “The vast majority of people live within some form of a family, so their resources and capacities are fundamentally shaped by the close relationships formed within this setting,” says Rense Nieuwenhuis, associate professor of Sociology at Stockholm University.
This is especially true for children and their family environment, which has a huge impact on their health and well-being. In this respect, the European Child Guarantee is contributing to rolling out different services to support families across Europe, including the family centre model which is expanding in a number of countries such as Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Aims of the European peer exchange
For Universal Children’s Day 2025, COFACE 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 was to spotlight the Belgian family centre model referred to as the House of the Child, and to use this as a starting point for transnational exchanges and mutual learning with other countries in the EU and neighbourhood countries. This was a public webinar open to policy-makers and practitioners set in the context of the implementation of the European Child Guarantee.
Programme
See the full programme here.
Chronology of the development of the Houses of the Child here.
Factsheet about the Houses of the Child here.
Child participation
Children are welcome to participate in COFACE webinars. These webinars are set up with child safeguarding in mind to ensure they are a safe and inclusive space for child participation.
Presentations
Holly Shorey – 15 principles for family rights and resilience
Martino Serapioni – Integrated family support models in Europe
Tine Rommens – House of the Child
Evelien Umans – House of the Child
Key resources

Opgroeien (Flemish agency for family and child support)
Ogroeien database with an overview of qualitative methodologies and programmes
Insights on Family Policies series: spotlight on Italy, Belgium and Germany
rEUsilience Roadmap for boosting the rights and resilience of European families
15 policy principles for family resilience
Breaking Silos, Building Futures: Policy Innovations for Integrated Family and Child Support | COFACE Families Europe
Networks of family resource centres – list of studies including social return on investment
European Observatory on Family Policy
2021 Council Recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee
European survey on the European Child Guarantee asking children for their feedback by 8th December.
European Child Guarantee Monitoring framework
Evaluation of Sure Start Services in the UK
Resource for support to English-speaking families in Belgium who have children affected by autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia (DCD) https://neurodiversity.be
European conceptual framework on family support
Resource about sexual health in 14 languages
Triple P Return on Investment studies: United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada

Family centres in other world regions

Family resource centres in Australia
Family resource centres in Canada
Family resource centres in Hong Kong
Family resource centres in Singapore
Family resource centres in the United States

COFACE webinar: Communicating Social Europe in a changing social media landscape
2025-11-25 09:30 - 12:30 (Europe/Brussels)
COFACE Communication Webinar
25th November 2025
9.30-12.30 CET
European and national social rights advocacy requires constant adaptation in this digital era. We believe our webinar is timely and important, especially considering shifting algorithms, rising misinformation, changing user habits, content moderation policy changes, new regulations on targeted advertising and the growing importance of short-form content.
Social Europe can be understood especially as EU-level initiatives taken to improve social rights and promote social inclusion, as well as national initiatives and campaigns to promote social rights.
European and national civil society are key stakeholders in the implementation of Social Europe and dissemination of key initiatives to the grassroots level. COFACE members are part of this stakeholder community.
With this webinar we wish to collect feedback from COFACE members on how civil society is using social media for communication and dissemination on social rights, their challenges and successes, and how they are managing the constantly evolving social media landscape. This part of the webinar will be for COFACE members only.
For the third panel of the webinar from 11.20-12.30 CET, we will invite COFACE partner organisations to join the discussion and share their perspectives (around 25 participants in total from national and European level).

Online workshop on EU funding for family support projects
2025-12-10 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Brussels)
Online workshop on EU funding for family support projects –
What’s available and how to apply?
10th December, 14.00-16.00 CET
This workshop aims to build capacity of the COFACE community to apply for EU funding to boost their work on family support in their communities.
It is designed for national civil society organisations supporting children and families.
Family support is an important element of many EU policies, including the European Pillar of Social Rights, the European Child Guarantee, the European Care Strategy, as well as the transposition of laws like the European Work-life balance directive.
We will start with a general introduction to EU funding, and then focus on three specific funds:

Erasmus+ programme
Citizen, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme
European Social Fund +

The workshop is for COFACE members only.
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Further reading

EU Funding Consulting – Astrid Mechel
rEUsilience Roadmap for boosting the rights and resilience of European families (see chapter 5 on EU funding)
EU Funds for Social Services – HELPDESK
Use of the European Social Fund for actions to combat poverty and social exclusion of children

COFACE Working group on work-life balance
2026-01-27 09:30 - 13:00 (Europe/Brussels)
COFACE Working group on work-life balance
27 January 2026 9.30-13.00 CET (online)
Background
COFACE is hosting an online working group meeting on work-life balance with members and partners to discuss key topics such as adequately paid leaves, take up of leaves by men and the childcare gap.
The childcare gap remains one of the most pressing challenges facing new parents across Europe today. This gap arises following the birth of a child, when well-paid parental leave has been exhausted, but access to state-supported full-time Early Childhood Education and Care is not yet available. During this period, families often struggle to balance care responsibilities and employment. This shows the shortcomings of existing work–life balance policies.
According to the find hand and European Equality Legal Network, gaps in the transposition of the EU Work-life Balance Directive persist—particularly in ensuring adequate compensation for parental leave and encouraging greater uptake of family leaves by fathers. These shortcomings often rooted in gender inequalities such as the gender pay gap, further deepen the childcare gap. Strengthening the effective implementation of the WLB Directive, especially by improving parental leave compensation and promoting equal sharing of caregiving responsibilities, is therefore essential to closing the childcare gap and supporting parents more effectively in the early years of their child’s life.
Aim of the working group meeting

Take stock of latest trends on work-life balance policies across the EU with a focus on the adequacy of leave payments and the take-up of parental and family leaves by men.
Discuss the current state of play regarding the transposition and implementation of the EU Work-life Balance Directive in Member States.
Examine childcare the gap, and explore how to bridge this period
Identify and discuss potential flagship initiatives and best practices that could help close this gap.
Assess recent research findings and policy developments that can enhance future action.

Read the full meeting report here
Resources
Presentations:

Willem Adema (OECD)
Vytautas Peciukonis (EIGE)
Karolina Andrian (ShareTheCare)
Martino Serapioni (COFACE)
Ivana Dobrotic (University of Zagreb)

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Safe and inclusive activities in COFACE
As a European civil society network dedicated to the values of non-discrimination, gender equality and equality and social inclusion, COFACE and its representatives must practice its values within all operations and activities, both internally within the secretariat and the network and externally when representing COFACE. In 2025, COFACE Families Europe adopted a Common Reference Framework for safe an inclusive activities. You can read it here in English and French, and here in Easy-to-Read language.
Please know that we provide a safe space for all types of families without discrimination, and foster pluralistic discussions which acknowledge different viewpoints.
It is important that all participants in COFACE activities fully respect these values, acting respectfully, and contributing to creating a safe space for all. If you wish to draw our attention to any difficult situations experienced during a COFACE activity, please write to us using the complaints form.

European conference on inclusive labour markets
2026-02-03 09:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Brussels)
About the conference
As member of the Horizon Europe PATHS2INCLUDE consortium, we are proud to announce the project closing conference “European labour markets under pressure – new knowledge on pathways to include persons in vulnerable situations”.
The project’s final conference will take place in Brussels, Belgium on 3 February 2026 and aims to be a key tool for dissemination and incubator for new partnerships for the take-up of PATHS2INCLUDE data in policy and practice.
The aim will be to:

Present key research findings emerging from the PATHS2INCLUDE research, highlighting key points of vulnerability in different labour market scenarios as well as new knowledge on best practice in labour market inclusion;

Connect participants working on inclusive labour markets from different perspectives at national and EU level; and

Discuss how different EU policy and legal frameworks can provide potential solutions to these vulnerabilities, and different scenarios to develop inclusive labour markets for persons in vulnerable situations.

A variety of topics will be discussed related to the labour market inclusion of groups in vulnerable situations, such as reflections on gaps in data, workplace dynamics to prevent discrimination, gender equal labour markets, older workers in vulnerable situations, the impact of digital developments on labour markets, the role of the European Union in shaping inclusive labour markets, and more.
The agenda is available here. Please contact Cloë Rossenbacker, COFACE Project and advocacy officer, for further information about the conference.
crossenbacker@coface-eu.org
Safe and inclusive activities in COFACE
As a European civil society network dedicated to the values of non-discrimination, gender equality and equality and social inclusion, COFACE and its representatives must practice its values within all operations and activities, both internally within the secretariat and the network and externally when representing COFACE. In 2025, COFACE Families Europe adopted a Common Reference Framework for safe an inclusive activities. You can read it here in English and French, and here in Easy-to-Read language.
Please know that we provide a safe space for all types of families without discrimination, and foster pluralistic discussions which acknowledge different viewpoints.
It is important that all participants in COFACE activities fully respect these values, acting respectfully, and contributing to creating a safe space for all.
If you wish to draw our attention to any difficult situations experienced during a COFACE activity, please write to us using the complaints form.

Breakfast Bytes Webinar - Empowering rural women, strengthening families: Community-based solutions in practice
2026-03-03 09:30 - 11:00 (Europe/Brussels)
Empowering rural women, strengthening families: Community-based solutions in practice

Date: 3 March 2026, 9.30-11.00 CET
Speakers

Margit Batthyány-Schmidt, President, Union of Hungarian Women Association
Viktória Szeri, Coordinator, Union of Hungarian Women Association

Description
In the run-up to the UN International day of women’s rights (8th March), this webinar will focus on rural women, families, and community-based good practices, and with speakers from the Union of Hungarian Women Association (UHW). The main objective of UHW is to empower rural women, enhance their role in the family, improve their quality of life, maintain their physical, mental and emotional health and encourage them to become entrepreneurs. They believe that family well-being can be ensured by strengthening the social, economic and cultural role of women.
During the webinar, participants will learn about the TalentA Programme run by UHW in order to support women entrepreneurs in rural areas, a programme previously developed in cooperation with Corteva Agriscience (an international agricultural science and technology company that focuses on helping farmers produce food more sustainably and profitably). The programme is aimed at women who tend to be underrepresented in business leadership, and has a sectoral focus on agriculture and more specifically on green and digital transition in farming, aligning it with EU’s twin transition agenda and key innovation goals. The TalentA Hungary Programme has been included among the best practices of the EU Interreg Europe programme.
In parallel, they also focus on the right to health for rural women, with a new National Health Promotion Programme launched in January 2026. This programme focuses not only on physical health, but also on mental and emotional wellbeing, with a strong family and community perspective. Additionally, they participate in European projects like the CERV project called Grapes of Change focusing on care, mental health, and community resilience.
Further information
Magyar Női Unio | női egyesület
TalentA Hungary – Training and micro-grants for women driving green & digital farm innovation
Register now!
Register here
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Safe and inclusive activities in COFACE
As a European civil society network dedicated to the values of non-discrimination, gender equality and equality and social inclusion, COFACE and its representatives must practice its values within all operations and activities, both internally within the secretariat and the network and externally when representing COFACE. In 2025, COFACE Families Europe adopted a Common Reference Framework for safe an inclusive activities. You can read it here in English and French, and here in Easy-to-Read language.
Please know that we provide a safe space for all types of families without discrimination, and foster pluralistic discussions which acknowledge different viewpoints.
It is important that all participants in COFACE activities fully respect these values, acting respectfully, and contributing to creating a safe space for all.
If you wish to draw our attention to any difficult situations experienced during a COFACE activity, please write to us using the complaints form.

Families in the age of Artificial Intelligence: Rights, inclusion and empowerment
2026-03-17 08:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Athens)
Families in the age of Artificial Intelligence:
Rights, inclusion and empowerment
European expert meeting
17th March 2026
Athens, Greece
Background
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in daily life, its impact on families is growing, shaping how they work, learn, care, communicate, and stay safe online.
Co-hosted by COFACE Families Europe and KMOP, this expert meeting will convene researchers, policymakers, tech experts and civil society to discuss the impact of Artificial intelligence on family life and inclusion, with a focus on rights, equity and empowerment in the digital age.
Using a multi-generation approach looking at children and adults, we aim to collect information from COFACE members and partners about family experiences at home, in the labour market, in schools and in the online environment, while highlighting the transformative role of AI and looking at both risks and opportunities.
The programme will aim to highlight the state of play of artificial intelligence today, while also looking towards the future and its impact on families.
Key areas to be explored during breakout sessions are the following:

Future of work: what risks and opportunities for AI-exposed workers?
Online safety and navigating AI in digital environments
Leveraging AI for inclusive care and social protection
AI for families in migration: threat or opportunity?
Financial inclusion and consumer rights in an AI world
AI in education: enhancing equity and respecting children’s right

Together, we will identify the challenges for families of today and consider the building blocks of a family-friendly digital future, one where AI serves as a tool for social inclusion, equity, and well-being for all families.
Working languages: English and Greek.

Programme of the event
The full programme can be found here.
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Safe and inclusive activities in COFACE
As a European civil society network dedicated to the values of non-discrimination, gender equality and equality and social inclusion, COFACE and its representatives must practice its values within all operations and activities, both internally within the secretariat and the network and externally when representing COFACE. In 2025, COFACE Families Europe adopted a Common Reference Framework for safe an inclusive activities. You can read it here in English and French, and here in Easy-to-Read language.
Please know that we provide a safe space for all types of families without discrimination, and foster pluralistic discussions which acknowledge different viewpoints. It is important that all participants in COFACE activities fully respect these values, acting respectfully, and contributing to creating a safe space for all. If you wish to draw our attention to any difficult situations experienced during a COFACE activity, please write to us using the complaints form.

COFACE working group on financial inclusion
2026-03-26 10:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Brussels)
Objective of the working group
The objective of this working group is to bring together COFACE members and partners working on financial inclusion, to discuss EU developments and exchange information on key national trends. We will discuss relevant EU legislation, and collect information on challenges and good practices from our Member organisations. This is an internal meeting, with some guest speakers. The working language of the meeting is English.
EU context
Two main topics will be addressed during the meeting.
The first one concerns financial literacy. The European Commission published an EU Financial Literacy Strategy on 30 September 2025 (as part of its “savings and investments union” package). The strategy responds to low financial literacy levels in the EU (with fewer than 20% of citizens reporting a high level of financial literacy) and sets out EU-level actions to support Member States, including coordination and sharing of good practices, an EU-wide awareness campaign, targeted EU funding for initiatives and research, and monitoring of progress over time.
The second one is about the use of AI in finance. At the EU level, discussions continue to focus on how the EU AI Act will be implemented in practice, especially for use-cases relevant to financial services (general-purpose AI used in workflows, and high-risk systems such as creditworthiness checks). Key recent EU-level developments include the entry into application of GPAI obligations from 2 August 2025, the publication of the GPAI Code of Practice (10 July 2025) and Commission guidelines clarifying the scope of GPAI obligations (17 October 2025). Some relevant workstreams have been launched in 2025 such as consultations on copyright/text-and-data-mining opt-out protocols (open 1 Dec 2025–23 Jan 2026) and on a draft implementing act for AI regulatory sandboxes (open 2 Dec 2025–13 Jan 2026). In parallel, the Commission has also signalled potential simplification amendments to the AI Act as part of its Digital Omnibus/Simplification work (19 November 2025), which may impact consumers.
Registrations
Register here to receive your personal zoom link.
Please note: this meeting is open to COFACE members only.
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Safe and inclusive activities in COFACE
As a European civil society network dedicated to the values of non-discrimination, gender equality and equality and social inclusion, COFACE and its representatives must practice its values within all operations and activities, both internally within the secretariat and the network and externally when representing COFACE. In 2025, COFACE Families Europe adopted a Common Reference Framework for safe an inclusive activities. You can read it here in English and French, and here in Easy-to-Read language.
Please know that we provide a safe space for all types of families without discrimination, and foster pluralistic discussions which acknowledge different viewpoints.
It is important that all participants in COFACE activities fully respect these values, acting respectfully, and contributing to creating a safe space for all.
If you wish to draw our attention to any difficult situations experienced during a COFACE activity, please write to us using the complaints form.
