Shabab van Nu! programme

Bottom-up parenting programme Shabab van Nu!: Aim and design

Parenting programme Shabab van Nu! (SvN) was set up in Rotterdam in 2010 by the Dutch-Moroccan organization Stichting Attanmia, in close cooperation with the local Moroccan community. The programme aims to support Moroccan-Dutch mothers and fathers in raising their teenagers in Dutch urban areas.

Goals of the SvN-programme include creating awareness among parents about their own parenting practices, expanding their parenting perspectives and skills, improving family communication, strengthening parents’ social networks, and supporting parents in connecting the variety of parenting concepts and practices present in their daily life. Offered to group of men or women already gathering on a regular basis at neighborhood centers, migrant organisations and mosques, the programme is integrated in participants’ existing social meetings. It consists of six multi-lingual group sessions, in which techniques of collective reflection and dialogue are being used, as well as communication skill training and education. SvN-trainers have the same cultural-religious background as the participants, and share similar experiences in migration and parenting. The programme draws both upon psychological as well as Islamic perspectives on child development in adolescence and parenting, while at the same time situating parenting within citizenship issues and coping with the urban setting.

Since their start in 2010 the programme developers received positive feedback from SvN-participants, and local governments have shown interest in further implementation of the programme. In need of a scientific validation of their work Stichting Attanmia requested Prof. Mariette de Haan from Utrecht University to carry out an evaluation study.