Our project addresses a major societal challenge:
How can we foster integrated, cross-sector approaches to child health and parenting support in order to promote children's well-being and thriving families?

In the post-COVID context, marked by increasing parental burnout, social isolation, and psychological vulnerability, support services remain largely fragmented across sectors (maternal and child health services, child mental health services, early intervention centres, social services, etc.) and divided according to children's age groups.

L'Étoile des familles proposes a paradigm shift based on multidisciplinary collaboration, delivering holistic, preventive, and coordinated care through hybrid multidisciplinary pathways.

These hybrid pathways combine:
- individual consultations or interviews;
- group workshops for all family members;
- parent-child activities;
- coordinated collaboration between regulated and non-regulated professionals working in healthcare, education, child and adolescent development, social services, and well-being.

This integrated approach provides families with complementary forms of support to prevent difficulties, strengthen family relationships, and promote the healthy development and mental well-being of both children and their parents or caregivers.

At the territorial level, our ambition is to create greater integration between parenting support providers and to pilot a new coordination tool— an hybrid coordinated care pathway—that strengthens social cohesion, improves family well-being, and enables more human-centred, equitable, and responsive support adapted to today's societal challenges.

L'Étoile des familles considers the child's entire family and social ecosystem, from preconception through the end of adolescence. Our coordinated pathways address a broad range of issues, including physical and mental health, parent-child relationships, behavioural challenges, disability, and major life transitions. Each family therefore co-designs a personalised coordinated pathway tailored to its specific needs.

The project is grounded in a holistic, systemic, and integrative vision of health, encompassing physical, psychological, emotional, sensory, creative, and social dimensions. A defining feature of the initiative is the active involvement of local stakeholders and community partners throughout its development and implementation.

The project is currently assessed at Societal Readiness Levels (SRL) 4–5 and is being developed in partnership with university research laboratories.


Company Overview

Founded in 2023 in La Rochelle and supported by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region (France), L'Étoile des familles is an innovative social enterprise operating within the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), dedicated to supporting families at every stage of life.

Our distinctive approach is to provide tailor-made, coordinated, multidisciplinary support that integrates health, parenting, psychological well-being, and work-life balance.

We support families across the La Rochelle area through engaging activities and innovative coordinated care pathways developed as part of a social research and innovation (Social R&D) approach. To achieve this, we work closely with a wide range of local stakeholders—including associations, public institutions, and local authorities—to make everyday life easier for families. We are currently developing a health-focused community hub (health third place) to support these coordinated pathways.

At the regional level, we also support employees in achieving a better work-life balance while helping employers raise awareness of mental health and parenting issues as key drivers of sustainable organizational performance.