Informal social support in contexts of diversity: shaping the relationship between the public and the private sphere

This paper aims to re-examine the social dimension of social support as the shared responsibility of social work and families in shaping social support rather than pressuring parents' individual responsibilities, as this has been a significantly under-theorised issue in social work research. In our qualitative study, we discuss parents' experiences of informal social support in Centres for Children and Parents (CCP) in two cities in Belgium. During 2012, six discussion groups were held with 29 mothers, three fathers and one nanny who visited one of the CCP included in the project. A broad topic list was used, investigating parents' first visit and motivations to return; their encounters with other children, parents and the professionals; and the actual role of the professional. Data were interpreted repeatedly using qualitative content analysis. The CCP focus on engaging with a wide diversity of parents of young children, not framed as at risk', reflecting the contemporary contexts of diversity in which these practices unfold. Our research shows that departing from an anti-essentialist approach to diversity and heterogeneity may be productive for the promotion of both social support and social cohesion as it captures social issues such as diverse and changing norms and values, diverse and changing family compositions, lifestyles and situations, and diverse and changing biographical, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds of children and parents. As the CCP offer the opportunity of a confrontation between private issues and public concerns, social encounters between a diverse mix of families are experienced as supportive. While embracing parents' perspectives regarding equity, reciprocity, agency and social cohesion, it becomes clear that these processes of interaction require facilitation by a specific professional. In this article, we attempt to unravel and discuss the possible role(s) of social work in generating informal social support.