WesterLiefde
The power of the community
Speakers: Kim Coppes, Arthur Peelen, Kim van den Dungen, Marion Leenders
De Vissenkom
“It takes a village to raise a child”. A familiar saying that reflects the child-rearing culture in various countries: the entire village takes responsibility for a child’s upbringing. You often hear it in the Netherlands too: more coordination, collaboration and integrated working are needed to create the best conditions for every child. But how do you translate that into practice? How do you share responsibilities within a city or municipality? How can you work together to ensure that a child grows up in a stimulating and stable environment? And how can you work together with children and parents in this process?
In the Equal Opportunities Community of ’s-Hertogenbosch, the municipality, education and childcare organisations, and sports, culture and welfare partners work together with young people and parents to create equal opportunities for all children. Not alongside one another, but with one another, so that they can make optimal use of everyone’s knowledge and expertise. And so that an integrated programme is developed instead of separate, isolated actions. In the session ‘The power of the community’, ’s-Hertogenbosch shares the process, the successes and the lessons learned around this theme. What difficulties did they encounter, how did they solve them, and also: what challenges remain? During this inspirational session, various members of the Bossche community will have their say, including one of the project leaders of the Equal Opportunities programme.
Amsterdam Flavours
The Young Carer-Friendly School—first experiences from the pilot
Speakers: Tessa Rademaker, Inge Romeijn
Taking a look at ...
Approximately a quarter of children and young people grow up caring for someone close to them. This could be, for example, a parent, brother or sister with a disability, chronic illness, psychological vulnerability and/or addiction. These are young carers who, at an early age, take on the care of a loved one and care for them ‘under the mantle of love’. They are confronted with care tasks (visible), but also with emotional concerns and/or with a lack of care and attention for themselves (invisible). In other words, carrying worries, having worries and missing care. The impact of a care situation at home on young people’s development naturally varies from one situation to another. But one thing is clear: at an early age, they are confronted with different concerns than peers without a care situation at home. One consequence is that in education they are more likely to experience delays, underperformance, absenteeism and even drop out. “Identifying these young people in good time and providing support where necessary is important so that their problems do not become structural and problematic, and so that they can develop as fully as possible” (SCP, 2020).
In the Young Carer-Friendly School pilot, 20 primary, secondary and vocational education schools are establishing links with local young carer consultants, support centres and young carers with lived experience themselves. The 20 pairs are getting to work with information, materials and activities to promote awareness, identification and support for young carers attending school. During this session, the pilot participants from Amsterdam are happy to share their experiences and findings with you.
Seeing, hearing and helping students sooner: a powerful partnership between youth work and education
Speakers: Jeffrey Post, Tewatha Muller, Student
Taking a look at ...
A student talks about their experience with youth work at school. A school employee gives the school’s perspective on the role of youth work in education. A youth worker explains how the profession of youth work complements the teaching team. A discussion is held about the position of youth work within the school and the lessons learned.