Build simple, loving connections for every child. 7 STRATEGY ACTION

Ensure caregiving takes place in a supportive environment.

› Develop and test different models for increasing the social capital of families of children at risk.

› Support programmes and initiatives that reduce risk factors and improve protective factors with reference to safety in the home for children (this also relates to the impact of gender-based violence and alcohol abuse in the home).

› Support evidence-based research and advocacy that highlights the importance of providing safe and loving environments (and various family nodes) that allow children to thrive.

› Support interventions (policies, technologies etc.) that improve the scalability of caregiver interventions.

Expand networks of support to vulnerable parents and caregivers.

› Support social network models that increase the social capital of households and caregivers in order to reduce vulnerability.

Shift dominant cultural norms about caregiving.

› Support initiatives that elevate and highlight the role of fathers and social fathers at the household and community level.

› Explore how caregiver-centred terms of recognition can shift dominant cultural norms and narratives around caregiving in order to develop positive parenting environments for children.

Outcome

› The number of children living in supportive home environments increases.

› Embrace, the Movement for Mothers, scales up a hyper-local mother-led network that provides support, information sharing and referral pathways for mothers.

› Increasingly positive narratives surface around the importance of fatherhood, countering the view of fathers as breadwinners and disciplinarians.

› Corporal punishment reduces in the home by encouraging positive parenting.