Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal (Dec 2016)
Co-Creating Desired Outcomes and Strengthening the Resilience of Multi-Challenged Families
Abstract
Families facing poverty suffer from many other stresses. Children’s school performance is one of the common topics. A life of poverty and the related unfavourable circumstances should not define children’s life stories, which is also the responsibility of professionals working with families. It is important to overcome the problem of the frequently dispersed help given to multi-challenged families. We proceed from the premise that the vicious circle of failures can be terminated by support and help to the family and by a co-creative working relationship involving all the participants in a joint working project. The results of the plural case study confirmed the importance of working with multi-challenged families, which includes dealing with the children’s poor school performance, in their homes. They also showed the inadequacy of the often dominant discourse claiming that families do not want to receive help. The results prioritise the role of social workers and the relationship established at the beginning of the collaboration with the family. The presence of a social worker who persist on a joint project even in the case of failure represents an important new experience for families. Although multi-challenged families are resilient, they sometimes need an interlocutor to help them recognise and strengthen that resilience.
