Parenting: Innov'Actions

One of the missions of the regional federation Familles Rurales Pays de la Loire is to support and help (on the technical and methodological plan) professionals (either employees or volunteers) developing parenting support actions addressed to the families' needs in rural areas (Pays de la Loire region).In a context of scarcity of public services in the countryside, associations develop and reinforce the family bonds by proposing adapted and ludic activities in favour of parenthood. Those activities are numerous: nurseries, child-care centers, workshops and games for members of families, educative actions, documentaries ending up with debates with professionals and experts (psychologists, consultants, etc.).In this context, it seemed natural to develop a European project based on exchanges of practices to inspire from other countries realities and expertise. The objective was to help professionalize the project developers in this field (both employees or volunteers) within the organizations of the 4 countries of the project:- Familles Rurales Fédération Régionale des Pays de la Loire - FRANCE - Skudutiskio Akademija - LITHUANIA- Casa Do Povo Messines - PORTUGAL- Social Innovation Center - LATVIAThe project enabled to exchange practices throughout workshops, discussions, study visits on the field which have encouraged the development of new actions and partnerships in each country. The project addressed two different groups, while taking into account the diversity of profiles and the professional context of partners, traditions in education and parenthood:- Target group 1: project trainers/developers (professionals or volunteers)- Target group 2: families from rural areas requiring some help and supportIn total, 20 project trainers/developers (5 per country) and more than 200 families (professionals tend to be in contact of around 10 families in general) were reached. This practices exchanges project between 4 European partners aims at evaluating existing practices in parenting support, developing the skills of project trainers/developers and eventually federating partners around parenthood.Were included many various activities on the national and transnational levels in each country partner. 2 transnational meetings were planned in Angers (France) and Vilnius (Lithuania) whose objectives were to coordinate the project in order to reach the objectives planned. The meetings were also the occasion to evaluate the following-up of the tools and methods used, while ensuring good communication among participants.National sessions consisted in identifying and mobilizing the project trainers and developers for the project, preparing the short-term joint staff week taking place in Portugal from 23rd to 27th of October 2017, gathering the results (both exchanges and newly acquired knowledge about social innovation). The methods used during this week were the learning by doing thanks to the social innovation approach.In the light of the results obtained, especially the practices selected as good ones, participants of the target group 1 were able to reconsider their own practices and integrate new innovative methods to better meet the families' needs. The selection and gathering of family contexts and activities, the conception and experimentation of common tools and their dissemination, the joint analysis throughout national and transnational sessions and meetings enabled to meet with the objectives of the project. On this basis, the consortium has edited a guide of good practices presenting the project and its results (online version).