Parental advocacy and an introduction to the IPAN toolkit

The parent advocacy movement seeks to build the power of parents who have been impacted by the child welfare system to advocate for change, support other families going through the system, raise up solutions that exist outside the system and improve children’s lives.

This online webinar will explore parental advocacy and a recently developed toolkit by IPAN (International Parent Advocate Network). In this toolkit you will find information and resources that parent advocates and their allies around the world have created. We will also highlight the key findings from a recent review of the literature and programme documentation, which presents evidence on the role of parent advocacy in achieving better outcomes for children and their families in child welfare. This online webinar will provide practical ways of taking parental advocacy forward, and outline the positive outcomes from this approach.

Reflective questions

1. What support would you and your organisation need to embed parent advocacy?
2. How would you know that the parents you work with feel included in the process and are empowered?
3. What tools from the IPAN toolkit could support you in your practice?

Resources mentioned during the webinar

• Fearless R2W
• International Parent Advocacy Network
• International Parent Advocacy Network International Review
• International Parent Advocacy Network Toolkit
• Parents, Families and Allies Network

Related resources

• Parents, Advocacy and Rights
• Reframe
• Relational Activism
• Rise
• Scottish Mum’s Guide to Safeguarding
• Surviving Safeguarding

Related Research in Practice resources

• ATD Fourth World presentation at the Research in Practice Leaders’ Forum
• Community development work: The approach in Camden Council
• Inequalities in the Social Gradient