EurofamNet is a pan-European family support network focused on family support policies and practices. The Network aims to inform family policies and practices towards the ultimate goal of ensuring children’s rights and families’ well-being. EurofamNet is doing so by building collaborations between researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, children and families, public and private agencies, and general society. Working as a bottom-up, evidence-based, multidisciplinary network EurofamNet is guided by the following principles.
EurofamNet works according to:
- A bottom-up process: We are seeking regional and national solutions, by engaging the existing national structures, and cooperating with them systematically.
- A dialogical style: The Network aims to make a difference to children, young people and parents, by listening to all relevant voices, in order to enable genuinely child and family-focused policy and practice.
- A double-layered structure: EurofamNet aims to establish a supranational network that enables policy engagement between the European level and the local/regional/national levels, with mutual influence between them. This will involve creating the conditions for and supporting ongoing dialogue.
The Network currently consists of 172 members, from 35 different countries across Europe. While members mainly come from academic and research institutions, we have a strong representation of participants from the policy and practice spheres. These participants are in the Policy and Practice Group and represent 13 European organisations. In addition, in line with the objective of the Network to promote high quality training of the future generations of researchers in family support, we have a Young Researchers Group, composed of 30 researchers who are usually in the pre-doctoral or post-doc phase.
The Network was founded in 2019 as a COST Action, and has operated as such between May 2019 and October 2023. COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. COST Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. You can find more information on our work during the COST Action here. After the ending of the COST Action, the Network was awarded a highly competitive COST Innovators Grant. This Grant supports a one-year project, which will run between November 2023 and October 2024. You can find more information about the current project here.
Making family support a right for all children
EUROFAMNET PRINCIPLES
