Using the COFACE Child Compass as a starting point, we organised a European expert meeting in Ljubljana in March 2022 focused on the features of large families and the challenges they experience in Europe today, taking stock of the situation in different countries and collecting good practices.
The reflections were based on the premise that all children must have equal opportunities and be treated equally regardless of their family settings, and modern 21st century family support systems should be able to factor in this diversity of needs without discrimination.
This European expert meeting was held in hybrid format (offline/online) for COFACE members, local participants in Slovenia, and EU stakeholders working on similar goals.
The objectives of this expert meeting were to:
- Connect the Slovenian and European realities on families;
- Build on the findings of the 2020 COFACE expert meeting on single parent families and large families;
- Collection of information on changing patterns in large families of today, including blended and recomposed families;
- Consulting national/regional/local level of the civil society on innovative practices in supports to large families;
- Encourage knowledge transfer across EU countries on promoting the rights of families and children;
- Develop common actions and positions, to mainstream the family perspective in EU policy discussions on the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the EU child guarantee, the transposition of the EU Work-life balance directive, the EU Child Rights strategy and more.
