The Race Equality Foundation marked a significant milestone recently in the delivery of their suite of inclusive parenting programmes, known as Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities: 25 years of delivery, 4,000 facilitators trained, delivering to more than 75,000 parents, benefiting over 150,000 children. I was delighted to be invited to join the celebrations at their 25th anniversary conference and share my reflections on why this work matters, and what the future holds for parenting support.
Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities is a precious thing. You could see it in the faces of those attending the event, people whose personal and professional lives are hugely invested in this way of supporting parents. It felt like an extended family gathering, hosted by REF chief executive Jabeer Butt with warmth and wisdom.
There are a series of reasons why Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities has stood the test of time:
Firstly, it started in 2019 with an important wellbeing question: were black families being reached by parenting support services? It started with parent experience.
Then the journey of building the extended family. REF reached out to people with existing knowledge about how to respond to the gaps identified by this initial work, including the US child psychologist Dr Marilyn Steele. A crucial step in building a theory of change that is underpinned by evidence, and adapting this to respond to the UK context, the needs of our families.
Then the really hard work – co-designing, delivering, refining, growing, evolving over 15 years. Multiple different evaluations. Learning to improve. Keeping values at the heart of the approach. Making this about the people, their voices, strengths and relationships. Building to the point where the most robust evaluation method, a randomised control trial, is possible, showing what everyone in this room at SOAS University of London already knew – that this really makes a lasting difference for families.
So what does Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities tell us about the future for parenting interventions?
Well, there are multiple sources telling us that the challenge identified by that original wellbeing question hasn’t changed. We still need to do more to reach parents with support services that really help them and connect with their lives, particularly those affected by racism and by poverty.
The journey ahead must be about continued evolution, innovation, and learning. Staying close to the experience of parents and families. Adapting as the context changes. New ways of connecting, built around what families need and using language and ideas that are meaningful to their lives.
The next 25 years must also be less about markets and individual interventions and more about growing institutions and systems that are responsive to the communities that they serve. We need effective, trustworthy and accountable. Let’s take a lesson from Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities and keep the focus on people, relationships and fairness, building trusted public services that are rooted in family experience.