Parents in Midden-Drenthe who need to catch their breath can make use of the help of support parents who take care of children for half a day. The municipality of Midden-Drenthe has joined SteunouderNL.
Support parents are volunteers who offer an ‘additional home’ for one or two half days a week to children of parents who cannot fall back on their own social network. The idea is that everyone can take a breather. A support parent coordinator links the children to support parents, who is employed by Welzijnswerk Midden-Drenthe.
“Afterwards between parents”, alderman Dennis Bouwman calls it. “Parents in our municipality sometimes need this. Help without having to go to a professional right away.”
The city council asked for a family facility last year. Bouwman: “We have mapped out the variants. For us it was a condition that the coordinator should be employed by Welzijnswerk Midden-Drenthe, which is already active in the capillaries of Midden-Drenthe. Support parent was the best fit for that.”
For the next two years, the municipality is allocating more than €100,000. Midden-Drenthe hopes to ultimately reduce the costs of youth care by participating in SteunouderNL, for example by anticipating escalation in families, so that there is no need to switch to more expensive care .
“We have spent a lot of money on youth care in the Netherlands, which can no longer be sustained. This is not a saving either. We really want to offer a plus, offer something that we don’t have yet. Young people and children who need youth care, just have to keep getting it.”
The project will run until June 2025, after which it will be evaluated. Midden-Drenthe is the third Drenthe municipality to join SteunouderNL. Parents in Borger-Odoorn and Emmen also have the option of being relieved of the load during parts of the day. Other municipalities in Drenthe, such as Meppel and Hoogeveen, offer comparable help through the Neighborhood Families project.
The municipality is allocating a total of 1.4 million euros to projects that are intended to improve care and welfare (social domain). For example, the magazine De Thuisblijver is published to make people think about aging at home and there is money for innovative projects.