Last October 2022, Mariana Palazuelos and Luisa Tesch from ICDI together with Éva Deák from Partners Hungry Foundation delivered a training on the Integration of Services in Eger, Hungary, which was followed by a study visit to the Play Hub in Nagydobos, Hungary.
The training and study visit was organised together with the Carpathian Foundation Hungary and 19 participants from 7 different Early Childhood Development (ECD) services in Hungary participated. Most of them, work closely with Roma communities in different parts of the country.
The training was part of the Places to Grow programme, which aims to promote coordination among ECD services for children from marginalized communities and ethnic minorities, for example, the Roma population in Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The integration of services and cross-sectorial cooperation was identified earlier this year as a key topic to facilitate learning, knowledge sharing, and study visits within this partnership. Therefore, the training was designed with the following learning objectives:
- Identify how the integration of services differs from fragmentation
- Understand the benefits of integration services for children, families, and professionals
- Learn a framework to work on the integration of services
- Identify services and take actions towards integration in their own community
Participants worked in groups to reflect on and apply the content of the training to their own contexts. Possible initiatives to support the integration of services were developed by each organization, as well as milestones and practical steps towards it.
The training was followed by a study visit to the Play Hub in Nagydobos, located in the northeastern part of Hungary. This Play Hub is located at the heart of the village and is a nest for inclusion where discrimination, especially against the Roma population is widespread. It also hosts other community initiatives like community gardening and sharing of cultural traditions, which brings people from different age groups to the place.
The Local Action Team (LAT) of the Play Hub led the morning and presented their experience running the Play Hub. Afterwards, participants were able to discuss and reflect on how to build an effective partnership with other services and engage key stakeholders.
Here you can read the full report for this study visit.
