Tools for Your Family to Thrive Overseas

ELIC is driven by the idea of the family—found and forged—on our teams and in local communities overseas. These groups of teammates, students, and local friends strive for the generous love of healthy families. And yet, there is something special (and especially challenging) about raising your own family cross-culturally. 

Parenting in a foreign context comes with challenges like deciding how to educate your kids overseas. And growing up as a TCK (third culture kid) has a huge impact on a child’s life. As families navigate this path, they learn a lot of tricks of the trade—resources and practical wisdom that can make a helpful difference for all the families on our teams! That’s where the Family Resource Team comes in.

For years now, this team of ELIC parents in the thick of life overseas has been providing support for their fellow families. They speak from experience and bring in wisdom from other resources that they have found helpful. Here are just a few examples: 

• Resource Emails

With new recommendations each month, these emails keep parents apprised of resources as they are created and discovered. Some of the tools come from ELIC teachers, while others are created by other organizations so that families gain access to the most useful tools available.

• Mentoring

Many families have one spouse teaching and the other free to support the team and their family in other ways. These co-laboring spouses have the option to be mentored by another parent in the org with more experience. These relationships are a substantial support to new families and can lead to rich friendships over the years. 

• Workshops

Throughout the year, the Family Resource Team hosts online workshops on topics like education and parenting, offering a chance to dive into a specific topic and learn helpful strategies for parents and kids to thrive.

• Chat Groups

Specific online chat groups for parents and teens allow for connection and support between families in distant cities. Families are often surrounded by locals in their host countries or friends in their passport countries who can’t relate to their experience.

In the chat groups, high school seniors headed toward college in their passport country can talk to peers their age who understand the complexity of that situation firsthand. First-time moms have a place to ask what the packaging of the best diaper brand looks like or to receive a word of encouragement from someone who really understands.

Resources from the Family Resource Team are all the cultivated fruit of the natural heart of ELIC teams. Young, single teachers become surrogate aunts and uncles to their teammates’ kids. They come together in hard times and they all celebrate together from baby showers to birthdays, graduations, and all the little moments in between. It’s a beautiful thing to behold both the informal and the structured support for families on our teams!