Caring for Children Begins with Caring for the Wellbeing of Their Caregivers
A New Capacity-Building Programme for Practitioners Supporting Vulnerable Families with Young Children
- Srpski
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Belgrade, October 19 2025 – Practitioners from the health, social protection, and preschool education sectors from six cities and municipalities completed a multi-day training entitled “Caring for the Caregiver” (CFC), organised by the Centre for Social Policy.
The accredited CFC programme aims to strengthen early childhood development practitioners’ capacity to foster the emotional wellbeing of parents and caregivers of young children, especially those from underserved communities. The programme helps parents build skills for coping with stress, seeking practical and emotional support, and nurturing complex family relationships. It enhances their readiness for parenting and for supporting children’s development even in challenging life circumstances.
The core principle of the programme is that only a supported parent is ready for all that quality childcare requires.
Twenty-eight training participants agreed that this programme represents the “missing link” in strengthening the counselling skills of practitioners working with diverse populations, including the most vulnerable families with young children. A key strength of the programme lies in promoting cross-sectoral collaboration among service providers, fostering stronger connections and alignment around shared goals for families with young children.
Between the first, experiential part of the training and the second, practical part, online supervisory sessions were held. These sessions enabled practitioners to integrate the new approaches and knowledge into their work and to practise applying new tools for working with families in their daily routines.
The training is part of the project “Improving the Position and Enhancing Access to Rights for Informal Waste Pickers in the Context of Modernising the Waste Management System,” implemented by the Centre for Social Policy within the “PRO – Local Governance for People and Nature” programme, jointly implemented by UNOPS, UNICEF, UNFPA, and UNEP, in cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Serbia and with financial support from the Government of Switzerland.
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