Magenta organises international study seminar:
Making a difference for families together
Magenta (COFACE supporting member) is a project for and by parents of children with additional care needs, such as a developmental delay, neurodivergence such as autism or ADHD, a physical and/or mental disability, a suspicion of a disability, chronic illness. Work-life balance is already a difficult balancing act for families with children without specialist support needs. Finding a care-work-life balance is even more complex. During the transition period to adulthood, specific challenges are compounded. Magenta aims to support parents and professionals in this with a unique training offer.
Magenta and the INOVHO research group organised a study seminar on 27th May in Leuven to present innovative insights into working with families with a child with additional care needs. This was the opportunity to bring Magenta’s years of experience in working with parents combined with recent scientific research. Academic input was provided by a variety of researchers from KU Leuven (Bea Maes, Ines Van Keer, Gert-Jan Vanaken, Lies van den Plas), The Hague University of Applied Sciences (Liesbeth Geuze), UC Louvain (Noemi Willemen), Tilburg University (Sanne Giesbers), as well as NGOs like Magenta (Noor Seghers) and Lus vzw (Geertrui Vandelanotte).
Through lectures and discussion tables, they aimed to inspire professionals in their work with families with children with extra care needs, with inputs from Belgian and international speakers. Key topics included lived experiences of parents caring for children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities; how to build developmental environments for children with severe disabilities and the role of parents in this; moving towards a truly caring society; and how to engage parents as active shapers of the future of their family.
COFACE Families Europe was also present at the meeting to discuss the impact of European policies on care-work-balance. The input covered different European frameworks such as the European Union Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities (namely actions on independent living), the European Child Guarantee (with children with disabilities as a key target group), the EU work-life balance directive (and its application to parents of children with disabilities), and finally the European Care Strategy (and namely actions targeting informal carers).
See more information about the event and presentations here.
