Programme 'Growing Up Together – Count Us In' is focused on parents and their children alike.

• Parents have the opportunity to learn about the child development and parenting that support it; the programme promotes personal growth and development of parents and helps them face the difficulties and acquire strength in a meaningful way; also, it expands the informal network of support.
• The programme develops resilience in children to unfavourable influences through adoption of skills in coping with stress, develops their communication and problem solving skills, and provides support to the development of their self-esteem.

The main goal of the Programme is to create a stimulating and empowering environment where parents, together with workshop leaders and other parents:

• exchange ideas about the ways of coping with parenting,
• learn more about themselves as parents,
• identify ways they relate to their children,
• learn about other possible ways of relating to their children.

Also, they learn more about scientific views on:

• development and stimulative parent-child interaction,
• parenting that is beneficial to both parents and children.

At the same time, in a stimulative environment and through structured activities and free play, the children acquire:

• basic skills in coping with stress,
• skills in unburdening and mitigation of worries,
• ability to receive and offer support.

The programme of 'Growing Up Together – Count Us In' consists of fifteen 1,5-hour long workshops that are conceptually and thematically interconnected (simultaneously for parents and children). After each workshop, the parents and children spend another half hour in joint activities.

The workshops are conducted by specially educated teams of experts in providing support to early childhood development.

Workshops with parents	Workshops with children
Parents of the 21st century	Let's play together
Basic psychological needs	Same and different at the same time
Easier way to achieve goals	Friendship
Four pillars of parenting	That's me – there are no two of the kind
All our children and how we love them	What can children be?!
Expectations of development – understanding and directing	Look, I can do it by myself!
Listening – an important parental skill	An unusual 4D story
How a child learns about the world around him/her	The world of feelings
Boundaries: why and how?	What and how with anger?
We create and choose solutions	Who is important to me, whom do I trust
Parental responsibilities and some other issues	It's OK to feel sad
Being a parent: influences and choices	Invisible boundaries
Supporting oneself, supporting others	When I am happy, I dance!
About partnership and co-parenting	Child's rights
End and new beginning	End and new beginning

Workshops are attended by 4-10 parents. They include various forms of work, depending on the goals and content of each activity. Short lectures with PPT presentations, exercises and assignments interchange with conversations on particular topics and exchange of experiences in small or large groups. Each workshop is 'spiced' with some sort of play and/or short film.

Workshops for children are attended by 4-10 children. The main form of work is play, either structured or free. Learning through play includes occasional songs, toys, materials and activities involving movement, and some activities practising routine.

The 'Growing Up Together – Count Us In' programme was launched in 2017 by the experienced leaders of the 'Growing Up Together' programme. In 2018, the leaders, in collaboration with parents and children, participated in the first experimental implementation of the Programme in 11 family centres, in one children's home, one kindergarten and one social co-operative. The second experimental implementation took place in 2019 in 9 family centres, of which 4 also participated in the first experimental implementation of the Programme, and 5 social welfare centres throughout Croatia. The Programme will be finalized in 2020. 

The 'Growing Up Together – Count Us In' programme is implemented in 23 cities in Croatia (24 providers). You can see where the programme is implemented here http://www.rastimozajedno.hr/rastimo-zajedno-i-mi/gdje-se-provode-radionice-rastimo-zajedno-i-mi/

The programme of ‘Growing Up Together – Count Us In' workshops with parents and children has been developed within the scope of the three-year Program for systematic support to parents of preschool children, especially those in demanding circumstances (2017 -2020), implemented by the Centre 'Growing Up Together' as partner to UNICEF in the joint initiative of the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy and UNICEF called 'For a Stronger Family'. From October 2019 further development of the Programme happens within one-year project ‘Enhanced Growing Up Together – Count Us In!’, implemented by the Centre ‘Growing Up Together’ as national partner to Generali Croatia within global movement ‘The Human Safety Net’.

The Report on 'Formative Evaluation of the Family-Based Care Component within the UNICEF Croatia Country Programme (2017-2020)' is attached