We seem to be living through a continuous turbulence of strife, war, mass-migration in the post-cold-war world. Continuous change seems to have taken hold of the context in which we live. Even when we personally succeed in keeping our daily lives stable, we witness our friends, family-members, children getting caught up in the never ending crises of this era.

Any change that takes place in our surroundings, creates difficulties for us and for our families. As we move through change, (as during periods of migration, terror, aggression, abuse, loss, etc.), we have to adapt to new, stressful conditions. We need to change personally and give new meanings to our relationships with our family members.

The community, be it a small regional community, a national one or the larger international community, takes a lot of effort to preserve its integrity by supporting its members through periods of change and stress. The support it provides is reflected in the communities' traditions, customs and laws as well as its educational policies, media approach, governmental or nongovernmental organisations' policies and activities.

This panel aims to bring together a group of representatives of national and international nongovernmental organisations that aim to support communities as they progress and move to the future. We hope the representatives of these organisations will enlighten us on their approach to the “family as a living systemic unit”. And this plenary session may even provide a starting point for us to discuss how their approach may be developed for future policies and activities.