Sumy State University has become a member of the European Alliance - 2014, which will implement the initiative "European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life" throughout Europe next year.

The Alliance has already prepared an ambitious plan for 2014, the result of which will be creating recommendations for EU policy regarding the balance of professional interests with family ones.

The recommendations will be implemented by COFACE - the Confederation of Family Organizations in the European Union (currently, it is comprised of approximately 60 organizations from 23 EU member states). The Confederation’s motto is "Better families, better society."

During 2014,conferences and thematic working groups will be held in Europe in order to investigate various aspects of the balance between work and family life. The leadership team for the project "Equal opportunities in getting profession for young mother-students in higher educational establishments" presented their work as the Family Support Center of Sumy State University. It was highly appreciated by the Alliance team, and Sumy State University was accepted as an Alliance member.

Sumy State University continues to spread the ideas of the "Family Friendly University" initiative, disseminating best practices and international standards. "We constantly see that the issue of work and family life balance is becoming more and more urgent in the world. Next year is expected to be quite fruitful in this area for both our project and the international community. We have had the opportunity to see the relevance of our work not only for users of the Family Support Center of SSU, but also for representatives from other universities in Ukraine,” said project manager Nina Svitailo.