The fourth and final International Learning Exchange Visit of the cross-national EU PINN Project, in which ICDI is a partner, took place on 2nd, 3rd and 4th November 2020. Our goal for this learning exchange visit was to get a better understanding of the role maternity services and parenting support play in prevention and early intervention. The participants and panelists also shared experiences about how COVID-19 is affecting maternity, ECEC, community development and parenting support services and the adaptations that are being made to keep services open for young children’s and their parents’ well-being.
Because of COVID related travel restrictions we had to take different approach to the usual face-to-face meetings with practitioners and policy makers and cultural events, which characterized the three previous events in Norway, Portugal and the Netherlands. Our hosts in Ireland, the Prevention and Early Intervention Network (PEIN) did a superb job of bringing, ‘heart and personality’ into what was a very visual and interactive online event. By means of documentary videos made specially for the event, PINN participants were brought on a virtual tour of children’s services as well as meeting many committed professionals in different parts of the country. A report highlighting the main discussion points with links to the documentary videos is available here.
