Above: Participants of the 20 November 2023 Family Advocacy Project event

This article is from ATD Fourth World International’s 2023 annual report.

A question

In 2019, some parents who are members of ATD Fourth World asked,

“What are we doing wrong? Despite all our efforts, our children are experiencing the same poverty as we are.”

To respond to this appeal, from 2019 to 2023, young parents living in poverty in Belgium, France, the Netherlands¹, Poland, Spain², Switzerland, and the United Kingdom formed groups with academics from several disciplines (philosophy, law, economy, and social work).

They all worked together to develop a knowledge base about what would have to change in order to “build a future without poverty for children”. The parents were clear about the price of their participation: creating change in their own lives as well as in the lives of other parents.

The research, the Family Advocacy Project, focused on child protection and resulted in proposals for change in two main areas.

Proposals

On 20 November 2023, proposals were presented to guests from different countries with different responsibilities, including lawyers, social workers, researchers, mediators, shelter directors, and associations.

The first proposals emphasised the need to make poverty visible. This involves highlighting the consequences of the invisibilisation of poverty: the institutional maltreatment, the disempowerment, and the pain of people living in unsafe situations. Concrete proposals were put forth: changing the name of “child-protection” services following an in-depth evaluation of the services, and redesigning child-protection training to include input from people living in extreme poverty. This approach aims to provide non-intrusive assistance that encourages the development of everyone’s full potential.

The second set of proposals concerns the legal system. Current laws and institutions weaken the essential bonds between children, their parents, and their family. Parents are calling for changes that would thoroughly transform this system culturally. In particular, they suggest making court hearings fairer, involving parents in the writing of social workers’ reports, and reorganising supervised visits to preserve family ties and thus ease the return of children to the family home.

Acted on

The proposals for change are already being acted on. The parents presented the research group’s proposals to their children’s social workers. Local ATD Fourth World groups from the participating countries are working to implement the proposals, taking steps locally and talking with their national teams to organise political action. A webinar with members of European NGOs was held in connection with the thirtieth anniversary of the International Day of Families. A group of academics from several European countries who were present on 20 November 2023 will be meeting to mobilise the research community.

Download the Family Advocacy Project’s final report

1. The Netherlands group did not take part in the whole process because they were working on a book on the right to protection of the family, “Recht op bescherming van het gezin : Schrijnende armoede en uithuisplaatsing van kinderen.”
2. Since 2023, the group in Spain has been conducting research using the Merging of Knowledge approach and has continued this work independently. They presented it on 14 March 2023.