Family, caregiver & community support

Allies in Development > Our Work > Family, caregiver & community support

Violence against women and girls does not occur in isolation. Survivors’ safety, recovery, and ability to seek justice are deeply influenced by the family and community environments in which they live.

AiD’s Family, Caregiver, and Community Support Programme works to strengthen protective relationships,  reduce stigma, and address social norms that perpetuate silence, blame, and tolerance to violence against women and girls.

What parent support captures

  • Training on safeguarding practices in the home
  • Parent advisory on support for child survivors, including information on counseling and other psychosocial support
  • Parent training on administering psychological first aid (PFA) to child survivors
  • Counseling and mental health support for parents and caregivers in post violence settings
  • Personalized support, including home visits, joint parent-child counseling, referrals and accompaniment

Why parent support matters

Both child survivors and their caregivers suffer emotional and psychological effects of violence. The family, caregiver and community support focusses on violence prevention and restoring the psychological wellbeing and resilience of survivors and their families in post violence settings.

Parents and caregivers who receive this support are:

  • better equipped to manage emotional strain, guilt, mental load and other associated psychological impact of violence against children in their care
  • better able to anticipate and meet the psychological needs of child survivors, thereby supporting lasting recovery

Community support

We work with groups of parents and caregivers as well as local community stakeholders such as religious heads, chiefs, women and youth leaders to:

  • raise awareness on violence against women and girls and its effects
  • address issues of survivor stigmatization, harmful social norms and gender stereotypes
  • establish community-based protection mechanisms for children.

.We facilitate:

  • positive parenting workshops
  • caregiver support groups
  • community awareness outreaches

Our aim is to:

  • Strengthen community understanding of sexual and gender-based violence and its impacts
  • Increase community involvement in violence prevention and response efforts (e.g. coordination with safeguarding and referral systems)
  • Promote safe, nurturing environments for children
  • Promote supportive, non‑violent responses to disclosures and the reintegration of survivors in communities
  • Reduce pressure on survivors to withdraw complaints or reconcile with abusers
  • Improve care, protection, and emotional support for children and adolescent survivors

This work is particularly critical in cases involving child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, and adolescent girls.

Why community support matters

Survivors often identify family pressure, community stigma, and fear of ostracism as major barriers to reporting violence and pursuing justice.

Partner spotlight

Parenting Network Worldwide (PNET) empowers parents to fulfill their divine responsibilities of nurturing and guiding their children. Allies in Development partners with PNET to implement its positive parenting program which applies the positive parenting technique to address family violence in Sierra Leone.

Ministry of Social Welfare holds a service level agreement with Allies in Development as an implementing partner that promotes the welfare of vulnerable women and girls. 

Women’s Forum Network is a national coalition of women leaders and organizations working to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in Sierra Leone. Allies in Development collaborates with women’s forum network in advocacy campaigns and programs.

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