Mother Grazia's testimony explaining the “With families” project

In recent weeks we have told you about some solidarity initiatives, such as the Fantasy dinner, created to support "With the families", the Valter Baldaccini Foundation project which is aimed at the most fragile and vulnerable families in the area who have just had a baby or a little girl.

But how does the project work? We thought we'd tell you about it through the words of Grazia, one of the mothers we met.

The first contact takes place, in most cases, through the professionals of the Subasio Counseling Centre: “I approached the project last spring, when I turned to the counseling center to receive psychological help. I have a baby of a few months and a three-year-old that I look after alone because my husband works far from home. I also have a new job and I feel so alone. I have no family member on whom I can rely, my daily life is always weighed down by a thousand commitments and an incessant request for attention and care from the children, with the need, in turn, to be supported and reassured on the management of delicate dynamics between two very young brothers and on my constant sense of "inadequacy" towards them".

The women who turn to the counseling center have very different stories and experiences from each other. Not everyone can be offered the opportunity to access the project, but Grazia has all the potential to be supported in this complicated moment. “In addition to providing me with personal support, the psychologist at the clinic immediately told me about this project to support families going through a difficult moment linked to the birth and reconciling parenthood with daily life”.

Grazia immediately welcomed the proposal with enthusiasm and, after sharing the situation within the multidisciplinary team that manages the project, the home visits of our educators began. The number, duration of visits and route are decided according to the needs of the family: “Annachiara and Lucia have become an important point of reference for me and my partner. We often turned to their advice on how to manage some critical moments with children and their practical contribution was also significant: they accompanied us in various moments in which a single adult with two small children would have moved with difficulty, or the children were occupied while I dedicated myself to carrying out daily activities. My children loved their company, always so calm, competent, attentive, solid, and pleasant, familiar and discreet. The added value of their presence, however, was above all the parental support they offered us, reassuring us about our choices, guiding us in reflection, comforting us in moments of confusion or indecision, providing us with tools to read some aspects of our children and mature as parents and as family".

The journey with Grazia and her family lasted a year. During this entire period, the educators and the entire team involved in the project were followed by a supervisor, i.e., an external professional with whom we meet periodically and who helps us read and deal with the various situations.

“After a year they left behind a more close-knit pair of siblings, two slightly less-lost parents, a slightly less insecure mother; and they will certainly remain part of our family history as a sweet, crucial and very helpful presence in the moment of great fragility of the birth of our second child".