PROJECT

Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities 25th Year Anniversary Conference

Join us as we mark a major milestone, celebrating 25 years of Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities. Expect inspiring keynote speakers and insightful panel discussions, the launch of new research, and interactive workshops focused on inclusive family support and innovative practice.

This landmark conference is more than a celebration. It offers a unique opportunity to reflect on SFSC’s impact on the sector and explore how its learning can grow good practice and support the development of inclusive parenting and family support in local areas, especially within diverse and marginalised communities.

Event details: Friday 19th September, 9am – 5pm, SOAS Brunei Gallery, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Sq, WC1B 5DQ

Why attend

  • Learn what works – Hear how SFSC has achieved lasting impact in diverse communities by improving parenting, reducing conflict, and building resilience.
  • Adapt successful strategies to meet your local needs – Discover how SFSC’s culturally responsive, community-led model can enhance your own programmes and service delivery.
  • Turn insights into action – Learn from real-world case studies and practical workshops that will equip you with transferable tools and models for your local context.
  • Be among the first to hear new research shaping best practice – featuring the launch of findings from an independent, five-year randomised controlled trial led by UCL evaluating the effectiveness of SFSC
  • Celebrate the legacy of impact – Recognise the remarkable achievements of the SFSC programme, and the individuals, families, and organisations who have brought its vision to life.

What to expect

  • Hear from inspiring keynote speakers and panel discussion
  • Engage in interactive workshops
  • Connect with peers and professionals
  • Breakfast, lunch, and refreshments provided

Speakers

Workshops

Explore how collaborative partnerships between statutory services and voluntary and community organisations can help local authorities to deliver services that reach those groups that they traditionally struggle to, by effectively utilising the resource that is the community sector. This workshop explores successful models of joint working between the statutory and voluntary sector.

Hear about key challenges and successes of delivering online support for all families. Drawing on over 20 years of experience and the SFSC curriculum, this workshop showcases our evaluated online parenting and Stronger Relationships parental conflict courses, exploring the challenges in ensuring they are accessible for people with limited digital literacy or with limited English and how the learning can be applied to other online interventions.

Explore effective strategies to meaningfully engage fathers in parenting and family support. The session will hear from a range of projects that highlight practical approaches that have been successful in developing safe spaces for men to explore their parenting role and gain support.

Hear directly from parents about how they’ve become powerful connectors in their communities. This interactive session explores how parenting programmes have the potential to produce peer leaders, trusted advocates, and community champions, linking families to services and driving grassroots change. Discover real-world examples of community in action and the impact of parent-led leadership.

Parents of neurodivergent children often face barriers to getting the support they need and increasingly find themselves offered parenting programmes in the absence of assessments and other services.

This workshop explores how Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities is evolving its model using lived experience and evidence-based approaches to respond to the needs of parents with children who may have had a diagnosis or who may still be waiting for assessments. Hear how this work has progressed and how you can enhance your practice to better meet the needs of families.

Learn how to move from consultation to co-creation by embedding lived experience throughout research, design, and delivery of parenting and family support.

Featuring insights from the Together Study, which put parents at the centre of research, and from Fathers Together where fathers with lived experience of imprisonment helped in the design and delivery of a parenting programme to young fathers in prison, this session shares practical ways to ensure services truly reflect the voices of those they aim to support.

What do parents of young people involved in youth violence and offending want from parenting support?

How can this be provided in a sensitive and flexible way to families who are stressed and struggling? This session explores some of the challenges and solutions of providing parenting support to parents of young people at risk alongside youth offending and community services drawing on the lessons of SFSC and working with the Youth Endowment Fund alongside innovative practice by Youth Justice Services.

Panel Discussion

Parenting Against the Current: Racism, Trauma and the Fight for Equity

This panel explores how racism and trauma intersect in the lives of parents and caregivers, shaping decisions, behaviours, and outcomes. Drawing on the Race Equality Foundation’s research on trauma and intergenerational trauma, speakers will examine how both structural and interpersonal racism influence:

  • The pressures placed on parents and families

  • The behaviours and coping strategies that emerge in response

  • The ways in which services recognise — or misinterpret — these realities

The discussion challenges deficit-based framings, calling for systemic accountability and culturally responsive support for families.

Who should attend

  • Parenting programme facilitators and trainers
  • Local authority family services teams
  • Commissioners and policy leads
  • Community and third sector organisations
  • Researchers, practitioners, and parents

Join us and celebrate 25 years of transforming families, empowering communities, and supporting inclusive practice across the UK

There is a limited number of free places available only for parents who have completed or are currently taking part in the SFSC programme. These places are not available for professionals, facilitators, or support staff. Please only select this option if you meet the criteria, as places are limited and prioritised for eligible parents.

Local Authorities and Agencies are able to pay via invoice. You will need to let us know the contact details of the person who has authorised the invoice and follow up payments to the Race Equality Foundation. Your invoice will be attached to your confirmation email.