Accompagnare la povertà relazionale: la proposta dei Percorsi di Enrichment Familiare

Relational poverty can be a fruitful opportunity for enriching families, only if its related vulnerability can be recognized, accepted, and accompanied. At these conditions, frailty can turn into resource. Indeed, it is only when one recognizes himself/herself as frail that one can accept the other as frail in his/her own right, an indispensable condition for an authentic and enriching relationship. On the other hand, it is only when one recognizes the relationship as frail and vulnerable in itself, rather than faultless and indisputable, that one can (re-)discover it as precious (rather than negligible), care about it and take care of (rather than neglect) it. In line with this idea of the relationship as frail, but worthy of care, the Groups for Family Enrichment (GFE), designed within the Family Studies and Research University Centre on the basis of the Relational-Symbolic Model of family relations, assume that even in poverty there are resources to activate as to enrich the family’s potential and competences. In this chapter we presented first the theoretical premises at the basis of the GFEs, then we discussed the results of an evaluative research showing that GFEs are more effective when participants are at higher risk for relational poverty. The need for investing in relational prevention and promotion was discussed as well as potential avenues for innovating the GFEs, also in light of what happened during the recent pandemic of Covid-19, were considered.