Workplace Parenting Support & Collective Care

Parenting Without a Net

“It takes a village to raise a child” is a proverb often quoted but rarely embodied in modern Western society. At Shemewé Collective, we honour the African wisdom at its core and recognise the gap between the ideal and the reality.

Today’s so-called village is more illusion than reality. Parents are raising children largely in isolation, juggling full-time work, caregiving, and financial pressures without the safety net of extended family or community. Emotional, logistical, and financial care responsibilities fall almost entirely on individual households.

At Shemewé Collective, we reimagine the village not as something lost, but something we can rebuild — starting in the places parents already are: the workplace.

The Load Parents Carry

The people we meet are often exhausted, holding everything together with little to no external support. They pay high childcare costs, manage household duties, support children’s education, act as the emotional anchor for their family, and maintain paid work, all under increasing emotional and financial strain.

This is not just a time-management challenge; it’s systemic. Care work is undervalued, preventive services are rare, and support is often inaccessible or privatised. Families earning just above subsidy thresholds are left stranded: not poor enough for assistance, yet not wealthy enough to cope alone.

For First Nations families and many migrant parents, layers of responsibility are even greater — supporting family across distances, navigating complex systems, and maintaining cultural obligations while coping with the impacts of colonisation, trauma, or conflict. These responsibilities remain largely invisible in mainstream workplace wellbeing conversations.

The Case for Preventive Support

Funding often goes to reactive services addressing crisis points such as violence or family breakdown. While these are essential, what’s missing are preventive, relational, and educational spaces where parents can build resilience, strengthen relationships, and address challenges before they escalate.

Without this, more people reach burnout, impacting their mental health, relationships, and work performance. Preventive care is not a luxury; it’s a public health, mental wellbeing, and workplace productivity issue.

Rebuilding the Village at Work

Research shows that raising a child typically involves more than six adults, from grandparents to teachers, yet modern families often have few of these supports nearby. The village can, and must, be rebuilt.

Shemewé Collective works with forward-thinking employers to integrate care into workplace culture. Through our We Belong EAP and our Reinventing the Village Ethos program, we offer employer-funded, confidential, and culturally attuned online groups such as Conscious Parenting, designed to support employees at all stages of their parenting journeys.

By meeting parents where they are — at work — we remove financial and logistical barriers, help them feel seen and supported, and strengthen their capacity at home and in the workplace.

For employers, this approach boosts retention, reduces absenteeism, and builds a culture where care is valued as part of organisational success.

Let’s Reimagine the Village

The wellbeing of parents is inseparable from the wellbeing of children, families, and workplaces. By embedding relational and preventive support into the workplace, we can collectively restore what’s been lost and create workplaces where parents don’t just survive — they thrive.

Connect with Shemewé Collective to explore how our Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) and workplace parenting groups can support your employees.