A few dozen parents in Drenthe receive much needed support from other families. For example, if a child needs a lot of care, these supporting parents, for example, jump in by including the other children in their families.
Thérèse Snaak is coordinator of supporting elers for Welfare Work Midden-Drenthe. She sees that the number of requests for help is increasing. “We have a number of families who are looking for a support family. And a number of supporting elers are also open, but it is customization to ensure that there is a good match.”
Sabine Dik also approached support parents after a tip from the Center for Youth and Family. As a single mother of three children and at the same time a small network, the help came as called. “We did the first introduction without children and that clicked immediately. And with the children it was also big mik.”
“You are being emptied. You notice that you have a lot of worries and that it is quite heavy to run that as a single mother for 24/7. If they are awake at night and you have to turn the day. Then it is nice if other people want to work you. You can’t always distribute your attention alone.”
For support parents Lennart and Anneloes Blankensteijn from Smilde, the support also came at a good time. Their son Lucas has two playmates every weekend, Toni and Mara. “I noticed that our family can give more love and space that we had to give,” says Anneloes. “There was a call through school that a family in our village needs help. We thought” how is that possible? “, So we thought we could do that.”
According to Snaak, there is still a demand for supporting parents, but she suspects that there are also families who can use help and have not yet heard of supporting parents. Both can report via welfare work. “That can be someone who has come to live here and has no network, or a child who is responsible for medical care, or a parent with financial problems.”