Best practices to support vulnerable families

Fondation Dora supports Apprentis d’Auteuil in its mission to enrich the skills and practices of the professionals and organizations working to address the issues that vulnerable families face today.

Educating families

Apprentis d’Auteuil and its partners believe that families are the key to the development of independent, responsible adults. Yet families all over the world are confronted with unexpected challenges and do not always have access to the resources they need. Families living in a context of vulnerability require professional and community assistance to ensure their children thrive and develop. 

In 2014, Apprentis d’Auteuil and its partners created the family-focused “Communauté internationale de pratiques et de savoirs” (CIPS) (International Community of Practices and Knowledge). These meetings are an opportunity to exchange professional practices regarding child and family welfare, resulting in enriched knowledge and skills for all those involved. 

Programme goals

• Strengthen the capacity of Apprentis d’Auteuil and its partners to support families in need
• Provide new opportunities for professional, volunteer, and community partners working with families to deepen or develop their skills by putting them alongside other contexts of intervention
• Contribute over the long-term to experimenting with new practices meant to improve the quality of support provided to vulnerable families. 

The main beneficiaries of the programme are the educational teams from 11 associations working in the northern and southern hemispheres and the 2000 families who are supported by their work. 

Programme results 

The organizations benefitting from the programme learn from different models of family intervention used around the world. Practices identified through these exchanges are analysed and adapted for use by the project partners, thus promoting a broad sharing of good practices. 

Apprentis d’Auteuil, an established public-benefit foundation in France works with local international partners to provide support, education, training, and insertion programmes to vulnerable young people and families. 

Fondation Dora supported this programme for three years, from 2017 to 2019.