It takes a village: The role of parent and baby groups in creating community wellbeing and resilience

This research aims to explore the role of parent/carer and baby groups in Scotland, in order to understand their value in engaging and supporting communities, including geographical communities and communities of identities and interests (NSfCE 2016). Early research has shown that baby groups provide new parents/guardians with much needed support and serve as vital routes to developing social networks for knowledge exchange, community engagement and community empowerment. Thus far these groups have received very little attention within academia despite the vital role they play in communities which suggests that their value has been underestimated. This research will look at the role of parent groups in everyday/weekly lives. Specifically exploring parent groups as a vehicle for community and sense of belonging, and for building long term community resilience and wellbeing.