On the 27th June 2025, our final conference for the rEUsilience project ‘The State of Family Resilience in Europe today: new evidence to support policy reform’, took place in Brussels. Attended by more than 90 participants from several countries and various backgrounds including as academics, civil society organisations on national, regional and EU-level, grassroots family organisations, social partners and EU-policymakers, this final conference focused on:
- Showcasing the main rEUsilience research findings by presenting key empirical findings and critical approaches from the research undertaken. For example, rEUsilience researchers started off with ‘kick-start keynotes’ which introduced key findings from the research and examined social policy from a family resilience lens.
- Sharing evidence-based policy recommendations and inform key stakeholders of recommendations for policy reforms to better support families. For example, deep dive parallel sessions were created during the conference which allowed participants to delve into a key policy area.
- In the morning, these sessions were centred around the three overarching policy aims which were identified by the rEUsilience research and policy labs: better income support, closing the childcare gap, and a comprehensive set of family support services.
- In the afternoon, the parallel sessions focused on different key areas of policy recommendations for the EU level including improving monitoring and data collection of EU Household data, a proposal for an EU peer review on family support models, and boosting investment for family support via ESF+.
- Support policy learning for key stakeholders by facilitating take-up of policy recommendations and networking for impact between European and national policymakers, civil society, social partners, and researchers. For example, by implementing an ‘ask the researchers’ component of the programme as well as the deep dive parallel sessions which focused on having an extended guided dialogue with the participants, policy learning, networking, and informed policymaking was facilitated.
Full programme: English
Summary article of the conference here.
Key findings: You can find the full meeting report here.
Resources:
Presentation Introduction to the rEUsilience project
Presentations kick-start keynote interventions examining social policy from a family resilience lens
- Anna Kurowska, University of Warsaw – Compounded risks facing families across Europe: responding to families’ everyday realities of risks, resources, and inequalities, you can watch the presentation here.
- Wim Van Lancker, KU Leuven- Back to universalism: what can a universal approach contribute to family resilience?, you can watch the presentation here.
- Ivana Dobrotić, University of Zagreb – Packaging policies for all families: how do we move towards a comprehensive system of support?, you can watch the presentation here.
Presentations deep dive parallel sessions: key areas of policy recommendations
- Wim Van Lancker, KU Leuven and Margarita León, Autonomous University of Barcelona – Better income support for families with children with a particular concern for low-resourced families
- Ivana Dobrotić, University of Zagreb and Anna Matysiak, University of Warsaw – Closing the childcare gap
- Mary Daly, University of Oxford, and Merve Uzunalioğlu, University of Oxford – Putting in place a comprehensive set of family support services
Presentations deep dive parallel sessions: key recommendations at EU level
- Alžběta Bártová, KU Leuven, EU Household data: gaps and opportunities for measuring family resilience
- Holly Shorey, COFACE Families Europe, The need to bring countries together to review integrated family support models across Europe: a proposal for an EU peer review
- Elizabeth Gosme, COFACE Families Europe, How can the European Social Fund Plus help boost funding for family support
Deep dive literature from the rEUsilience Consortium