Support to parents and caregivers is a key global agenda, yet too often it excludes demographics at most need of tailored, inclusive support. Kinship carers and caregivers of children with disabilities require explicit recognition in law and policy, and tailored support interventions to build inclusive protection systems which reduce violence against children and unnecessary child-family separation.
Drawing on cross-country evidence, this session will explore the support needs for these caregiving groups as an integral component of family strengthening — understood in its broadest sense, to include the extended family networks on which so many children depend. It will also explore how parenting support can and should extend to kinship carers, and be tailored to fully include all children.
Through facilitated discussion and audience participation, we will share our current global findings, hear from those with lived experience and learning from national contexts to identify concrete policy shifts and inform a Rise Up Policy Brief.
The session will run for 60 minutes with at least 40% audience interaction throughout. It incorporates a short video bringing in voices of kinship carers and children with lived experience, including those with disabilities.
Round table policy discussion
Presentation of survey findings (~10 min)
Short video of lived experience voices (~5 min)
Facilitated small-group discussion on 2–3 key dilemmas drawn from the data, with Slido capturing inputs from audience in real time (~20 min)
Plenary synthesis and shared policy asks (~10 min)
Open Q&A (~10 min).
Delegates actively shape the session’s conclusions, informed by both evidence and experience.
