Mellow Parenting program: for healthy and happy children

The project purpose

The project “Mellow Parenting Programme - for healthy and happy children” contributes to improving safety, well-being and development of children under the age of 5, particularly those who are at great risk of being abandoned or separated after birth due to the lack of adequate parental care and poor parent-child attachment and relationships.

The project aims to:

• Improve the knowledge and skills of vulnerable parents, empowering them to provide adequate care to their children, develop attachment and relations with their children, thus, contributing to the prevention of child-family separation.
• Improve access to Mellow Parenting Programme by parents and children in the Republic of Moldova as one of the family support service’s early intervention programme.

Partnerships and implementation support

The project is implemented by “Partnerships for every child” in collaboration with the British Mellow Parenting organization and 9 Local Authorities, with the financial support of the World Childhood Foundation.

Direct project beneficiaries: small children at the risk of abandonment and their parents, children and parents in difficult socio-economical situation.

Indirect beneficiaries: parents of the children, practitioners who directly work with vulnerable parents and children (social assistants, psychologists, preschool educators) who will be supported in skills development on working with parents and their children, the wider public who will gain knowledge and will be able to better understand the needs and rights of vulnerable youth.

Innovation of the project:

The “Mellow Parenting” educational program provides an early intervention method based on relationship and attachment and is focused on the strengthening of parent-child relation. The Mellow Parenting groups are intense, working during 14 weeks, 1 day per week. The groups cover the most vulnerable families, including those facing difficulties in the parent-child relation, mental health issues, or families with substance abuse issues, families where the child’s well-being is at risk, families where the parents face learning difficulties or have reduced literacy.

Since 2016, the project has been working towards the development, testing and integration in the Moldovan child welfare system of the Mellow Parenting programme - an early intervention support based on strengthening parent-child relationship. It supports the Government of Moldova in the implementation of the Child Protection Strategy 2014-2020, the inter-agency Strategy of developing parental abilities and competences 2016-2022 as well as the newly approved Strategy 2030 developed based on Global Sustainable Development Goals. The action will facilitate scaling up of fathers’ participation in the Mellow groups and provide technical assistance to national authorities to ensure full integration of MPP in the provision of prevention services as well.