Program for Empowerment and Promoting the Development of competencies of parents of children up to 12 years of Age, in Situations of Migrations and Refugeehood (PoM)

ISSA Member: Center for Interactive Pedagogy, Serbia

What happened?
During migration and refugeehood, young children often experience disruptions to daily life, emotional stress, and instability. The Parenting on the Move (PoM) program was designed by the Center for Interactive Pedagogy (CIP Center) in Serbia to support parents in this situation with tools that foster resilience, well-being, and education for kindergarten and school-age children.

What was needed? How did they respond?
During the peak of the migration crisis, Serbia primarily served as a transit country for refugees and migrants traveling along the Western Balkan route, rather than as their final destination. Parents needed support to nurture a sense of normalcy, emotional stability, and educational continuity for their children amid migration. In response, PoM was developed based on needs recognized by parents, teachers and activists. Program was created to assist them in creating protective environments that encouraged family cohesion and intercultural exchange.

Key challenges:

• Families were navigating migration or displacement, often experiencing social disconnection, feeling of uncertainty, cultural shifts, and emotional stress.
• Children’s routines and learning were disrupted, placing a strain on parents to fill emotional and educational gaps.

Solutions:

• Parent workshops—led by trained facilitators, equipping caregivers with strategies for resilience and empowering parental role.
• Family workshops—led by trained facilitators to foster shared learning and connection between family members and other families, as well as support and quality time with children.
• Supportive materials—practical activity guides for parents and children to engage together that can provide continuity when families continue to travel and don’t participate in workshops anymore.
  

CIP Center mobilized local facilitators and cultural mediators and engaged families directly, creating trusted community spaces during unstable periods. Workshops and materials empowered families, not just as recipients of support, but as active agents in nurturing child development amid migration.

ISSA Network Hub, through its network and platform, shared PoM as a member-developed resource to strengthen practice across contexts of migration and displacement—highlighting the effectiveness of community-rooted caregiving models that can be adapted regionally.

What's in place? What's missing?
While PoM provided locally rooted workshops, trained facilitators , and practical materials that empowered parents during migration, these approaches remain outside formal crisis frameworks. Without embedding caregiver-led, community-based models into national preparedness plans, families risk losing access to structured psychosocial and educational support when displacement occurs.

Being part of a regional network: Advantages of ISSA membership

It offers CIP Center opportunities for collaboration, learning and sharing knowledge and practice. It enables the exchange of best practices and innovative approaches with like-minded organizations across the region, strengthening the quality and impact of our work in early childhood development. The network fosters a sense of solidarity and shared purpose, empowering us to tackle common challenges with collective expertise and mutual support.

Recommendations

National policymakers:

• Allocate sustainable funding for parenting programs that reach families in situation of refugee and migration.
• Promote cross-sector collaboration (health, education, and social protection).

Local/national actors:
Develop culturally sensitive and language-accessible materials tailored to needs of the families.

Private donors:
Develop culturally sensitive and language-accessible materials tailored to needs of the families.

Professionals/practitioners:
Cross-sector collaboration to provide integrated support that addresses both parenting and broader family needs

Explore Further:
Short video about the program
Parenting on the Move: empowering parents to best support their children through migration and refugeehood | ISSA
Playful Parenting Series | Nurturing Resilience Through Play Among Migrant and Refugee Families

‍