European Initiative Calls for Enhanced Family Support Systems
Today, May 15th, marking the International Day of Families, the European research project rEUsilience presents new insights and recommendations aimed at enhancing family resilience in Europe. The project, led by Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) and the University of Oxford, shows the importance of placing families at the heart of social policy reforms.
Rense Nieuwenhuis. Photo: Magnus Dahl
Over three years, researchers from six leading universities and the organization COFACE Families Europe have identified critical shortcomings in existing policies. Their findings point to two main challenges:
Policies are often too rigid or narrow, failing to meet the actual needs of families throughout different life stages.
Support for economically vulnerable families requires significant strengthening.To address these issues, the project has developed 15 concrete policy principles. These include the necessity of better income support, improved access to childcare, and comprehensive support services for families in vulnerable situations.
"Our findings show that family-centered policies are crucial for strengthening European families' resilience against socioeconomic challenges," says Rense Nieuwenhuis, associate professor at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, and joint coordinator of the project.
Family resilience refers to a family's ability to cope with and recover from stress, strain, and challenges. A resilient family has resources and strategies to manage both economic and social hardships and can adapt to changes and crises. Effective social policies can enhance family resilience through prevention, and by providing essential resources and support.
The problem that rEUsilience tackles is of lack of adaptive capacities or resilience (understood from a familial rather than individual perspective) and resulting dilemmas and inequalities.
Research at the Social Policy unit includes investigating explanations for the development of the welfare state, as well as the effects of social policy on an individual and societal level, often in an international comparative perspective and with quantitative research methods.
