The second funding period was held under the title “Parents Asking Parents²: From Model Project to the Field” [abbreviation in German ElfE²) which was based on the first funding period called “ElfE: Parents Asking Parents”. Elfe² was initiated by the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences which cooperated with two partners: the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf and the Jugendwerk Aufbau Ost JAO gGmbH. Analogous to the first funding period a community advisory board/steering group was set.
The overall aim of the peer-research project was to support health equity with parents of pre-school children living in the district Marzahn-Hellersdorf (Berlin). The focus of the second funding period was on the further development and dissemination of products piloted in the first funding period.
The project aimed at strategies to anchor participation of parents in local planning and decision-making processes. Therefore, a compact workshop format was developed and tested to facilitate participation of parents and professionals. According to the peer-research-approach, parents from the first funding period were trained to conduct the workshops with newly recruited parents and professionals, supported by the project cooperation-partners. Key topics of the research workshops were “relationships at eye level”, “information and transparency” and “participation and parents councils”.
Another key component of ElfE² was the composition of a handbook that consists of a step-by-step instruction on how to facilitate and implement parents’ participation in planning and developing processes at a municipal level. The foundation of the handbook was formed by the workshop format which was developed and tested within the second funding period as an organisational model for enabling parents’ participation. As a result of the workshops dialogue formats were processed which are applicable for the promotion of relationships between parents and professionals in the childcare setting. Furthermore, the dialogue formats and the handbook were rolled out to different key players at the local level and online.
A comprehensive overview of all publications and results of the first and second project funding period is accessible on the open access publication server aliceOpen of the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences.
