From DW Documentary.
For many single parents, everyday life can be a challenge. But a number of projects offer assistance and encouragement. Affordable housing, social networking, and childcare services are designed to ease the burden.
Single parents in Europe can increasingly rely on help and support from people, associations, and institutions to help them balance raising children with work, financial issues, and mental overload.
"A secure, affordable living situation – that’s such a key issue in the lives of single parents,” says Sarah Zeller. A few years ago, she found herself confronting this issue when, along with another friend and her child, she decided to set up a shared apartment for the two single parent families. But they searched in vain for an affordable apartment with enough space.
This predicament gave rise to an innovative approach. In 2015, the German native founded the non-profit association JUNO in Vienna. Working with property developers, the association plans and develops compact and affordable apartments for single parents. With her idea, the founder has now helped over 160 families find a suitable apartment.
The Belgian region of Wallonia has set itself the goal of strengthening the social position of single parents. Amandine Dedoncker is a social worker involved in the "Relais Familles Mono” program, creating services tailored to the needs of single parents. The government program enables single parents to learn practical skills, meet other mothers or fathers, and be part of a community. As a population group particularly affected by loneliness, this is extremely important for single parents‘ mental health.
When other families have free time, on Saturdays Bianka Baumann is at work: in a supermarket in Rostock. The single mother and sales assistant works weekends. But who looks after her son Linus, during a time when most daycare centers are closed? An innovative daycare center here makes her weekend work possible by offering overnight care for parents who work night shifts.
All of this is financed by the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. A model that supports single parents – and makes it possible to truly balance work and family life.
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