It’s takes a village to raise a child
‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ Raising children is no easy task. When things are (temporarily) not going well, it can help if someone from your own environment is there for you, making you feel seen and heard. Someone who makes time for you, tries to come up with solutions for whatever problems you’re facing and isn’t afraid to actually put in the work to help you.
Unfortunately, not all parents are blessed with the support from a ‘village’. This could be the result of leaving behind your own trusted environment as a refugee, because of a move or simply because your network is overloaded. Multiple issues can also result in disrupted relationships with family, friends or neighbors.
Being low-educated and struggling with poverty adds to the risk of being left alone when it comes to parenting. It pays off being aware of these risks.
It can be useful or necessary to organize informal support from volunteers, while guaranteeing continuity and quality. In order to achieve this, recruiting, training and guiding our volunteers are essential.
Having informal support, just someone who is there for you, can prevent problems from escalating. It can prevent a family crisis and it helps to reduce the need for formal care.
Informal support often has a preventive effect on minor parenting problems, and it can alleviate feelings of loneliness. Informal help can also be used in combination with youth care, making it easier to scale up or down. This requires correct guidance for our volunteers by professionals.
Tilburg has already been making big strides in this area. Different parties found each other and formed a Coalition Informal Support for young people and families in Tilburg. With the aim of coordinating what is already available, filling gaps, promoting and monitoring the quality of informal support and making it accessible for young people and families in Tilburg.
Who is a part of the informal support coalition?
The Coalition has grown into a dynamic partnership of organizations in the field of education, prevention and care for young people and families.
