**5. Conclusions**

The Open Kindergartens facilitated the creation of communities of practice that served to promote collective learning processes and the re-negotiation of roles for both parents and professionals. Open Kindergartens provide family support services that are not targeted toward one child or framed in terms of deficits and risks but instead aim to create supportive systems where parents are seen as assets; their experience and access to different cultural resources are valued. An essential element of these spaces is that they are non-judgmental and not normative but instead recognize the diversity of practice and experience.

Universal services are essential to create a supportive environment for all children [31] and Open Kindergartens are one way of creating such environments. One of the main benefits is that they build on the notion that "all parents have issues and concerns and differ only in the extent to which they have the capacity to address these issues" [31]. From a societal perspective, universal services, such as Open Kindergartens, demonstrate a collective responsibility for taking care of all the children in our society. "Raising children is a collective effort best accomplished when the obligation extends to all adults that touch a child's life" [31]. Open Kindergartens nurture interaction and value difference to create a dynamic that builds collective responsibility between parents, between professionals, and together as a community of parents and professionals.

Family support initiatives that are similar to the Norwegian Open Kindergartens are located in a range of other countries in Europe including the United Kingdom, Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden, and Finland [41]. Further research that compares traditional parental training and Open Kindergartens or similar initiatives in different countries can shed light on the rationale behind prioritizing one form of family support initiatives over others, and how they might be seen as complementary rather than alternatives.
