Scaling up Playful Parenting in Serbia

• In Event: Pathways to Scale for Playful Parenting Programs

Proposal

In partnership with Lego Foundation, UNICEF Serbia CO scale up Playful Parenting in ECD services including scaling-up strategies: multi-sectoral ECD policy formulation and financing, programming, capacity building of FLWs, coordination and communication for development.
The central program intervention is related to change in health, preschool and social welfare services by switching practice from a medical to a family-centered approach based on nurturing playful child-parent interaction.

New quality in practice is reflected in gender-balanced parenting counseling, caring for caregiver's socio-emotional wellbeing and resilience and consequently increased parents/caregivers' capacities for responsive and playful parenting and child-parent relationship, supported by FLWs coaching intervention.

The Theory of the Behavioral Change Model is based on the idea that when FLWs are supported by integrated policies, quality training and guidance, supervision and positive social norms, they could provide playful parenting counseling and coaching, in line with quality standards. Furthermore, introducing one nurturing interpersonal relationship for the caregivers, cared on by FLWs and shaped by the Caring for the Caregivers Program approach, increases the capacities of caregivers for sensitive, responsive and playful parenting. When parents/caregivers are supported to practice self-care, stress coping and conflict resolution strategies, engaging families, social network and community resources, caregivers are empowered to provide comfort, connection, emotional security, stimulation and learning through playful child-parent interaction.
The presentation will show what strategies are used in Serbia for scaling up playful parenting. The focus should be on quality training and supportive supervision for FLWs, intersectoral collaboration, getting relevant partners and policy decisions together on the joint agenda and communication for social and behavioral change.
 Quality training and supportive supervision in the scale should provide orientation and capacity building for front line practitioners and professionals to stay in line with relevant, accurate and up-to-date information regarding ECD evidence-based knowledge practices.
 Support integration and sound multi-sectoral coordination of policies and services among different sectors (health, education, social protection) by connecting professionals and services which serve the same children and families in the communities could affect the system to stay tuned with the needs of the most vulnerable caregivers, including smarter resources allocation planning.
 Strong and broad partnerships and necessary evidence-based policy and regulatory changes on the national and local level to enable sustainable support to nurture care and playful parenting
 Changing social norms, addressing barriers, misconceptions, traditional paradigm and establishing a common language with the congruent narrative of gender-balanced- playful parenting a cross-systems, services, media and influencers of will be supported with comprehensive C4D Strategy.
The scaling-up Strategy will nurture a two-pronged approach – addressing both local and national levels changes. It will engage strategies that should demonstrate and learn from results in the targeted municipalities (on the level of parental behavior change and system-level improvements) and will invest in and propose national level changes to support scaling up of these changes/improvements nationally.

Author

• Mila Vukovic Jovanovic, UNICEF