Multilingualism as a strength: how Foyer supports families and schools

In a diverse city like Brussels, many children grow up speaking more than one language. At Foyer, multilingualism is not seen as a barrier but as a strength. For many years, Foyer has supported families, schools and professionals in embracing multilingualism and helping children develop to their full potential.

Through Partners in Multilingualism (PIM), Foyer works with parents, schools and education professionals on multilingual parenting and language development. During the 2025-2026 school year, PIM organised 42 group sessions across 32 different schools, reaching 524 parents. Families also benefited from webinars and individual language advice tailored to their needs.

Teachers, students and education professionals also receive training through PIM. These sessions focus on multilingual education, language diversity and practical ways to create learning environments where every child feels included.

This same vision continues at Foyer’s Anchor Point, a consultation centre within Brussels’ House of the Child network. Here, young parents can access medical consultations, parenting support and guidance. In 2025, the centre welcomed families representing 50 different nationalities.

Multilingualism is a central theme of the centre’s work. Through the Planting Languages sessions, parents come together to discuss multilingual parenting, children’s language development and the everyday realities of raising children with more than one language. These sessions provide reliable information while creating opportunities for parents to learn from and support one another.

By bringing together families, schools and professionals, Foyer helps create a society where multilingualism is recognised as an asset and every child has the opportunity to develop both their languages and their talents.

This article is part of our series about Foyer’s 2025 Activity Report. Through this series, we highlight several projects and themes that shaped our work over the past year.