Parents International (Stichting IPA)

Last updated: 2023-12-15

About our SID activities

Our activities include:
 
  • Connecting parents and their associations on a global scale;
  • Providing an international marketplace where parents can meet; 
  • Establishing a pool of experienced professionals, practitioners, trainers and researchers to support parenting development and child participation;
  • Participating in projects that can contribute to achieving its goals;
  • Offering examples of good practice to increase parents' involvement in education;
  • Working on stimulating, initiating, supporting, and conducting research and development; 
  • Stimulating, initiating, supporting, and executing projects and publications relating to its goals and aims; 
  • Providing materials, activities, and training that help improve and professionalise the skills of parents' associations.

We are active experts of the Council of Europe in the field of the digital age and have co-authored the guide on digital practices for parents of children aged 0 to 8 and an award-winning online training for parents on a number of topics including digital communication and social networks. We also published and promoted a guide on responsible social media use and mediation in a number of languages including languages of refugees in Europe. We are currently working on material and support for parents, teachers and school leaders in order to promote and implement a risk mitigation approach to replace risk prevention in relation to online activities.

What we are doing to create a better internet...

We offer expert support to help increase parents' digital literacy levels and empower them to live in the digital age with training and information. We implement an approach based on responsible digital citizenship, free, informed choices, and no legislative restrictions.
 

About us

Stichting IPA (Parents International) is established with the mission of supporting parents around the world to become game-changers by helping their children to grow up happy and healthy 21st century citizens. By becoming the best parents of our children, we can ensure not only our children's future but also the well-being of mankind. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the piece of legislation that establishes the rights and duties of parents for the best interest of their children, has been ratified globally in all countries except the USA. European parents have 30 years of experience working to protect the rights of their children by joining forces in a European organisation. Global challenges, as well as local ones that may be faced knowing answers from other localities, call for wider cooperation among parents from all over the world.
 
This is the reason why this foundation is calling on working with experienced parents' representatives (active and formal) and professionals, including teachers, social workers, researchers, psychologists, teacher trainers, economists, students, policymakers, youth workers, and so on,  who are interested in supporting parents, in a global parents' alliance that works for the best interest and wellbeing of children all over the world especially by:
 
  • supporting parents to become the best educators of their children;
  • increasing parental involvement in all forms of education, with a special focus on formal education, for thinking and acting together for education suitable for 21st century children in the post-PISA period;
  • fighting illiteracy, promoting reading;
  • equal opportunities for girls and women, and education of girls and mothers;
  • supporting parents in becoming the main advocates of the rights of the child;
  • the right to mother tongue and mother culture, even for migrants;
  • digital literacy and living in the digital age;
  • empowerment for active citizenship and participation;
  • fighting xenophobia, hate speech, exclusion, and supporting inclusion for a peaceful future.

Additional links/resources