Together Old and Young: Practitioners Learning and Upscaling Skills or TOY-PLUS builds on the results of the original TOY Project (2012-2014) to develop an innovative online curriculum and methodology in intergenerational work for practitioners in early childhood education and care (ECEC), social care and community work. The other main task of TOY-PLUS is the development of a TOY Quality Stamp with agreed standards for local authorities and educational institutions in intergenerational work involving young children and older adults.
ICDI is the overall coordinator of TOY-PLUS. In total, experienced partner organisations in intergenerational learning from seven countries in the European Union will participate.
See the dedicated TOY website for more information: www.toyproject.net
Description
Background
Together Old and Young Project or TOY (www.toyproject.net) (2012-2014) was unique amongst European intergenerational projects with its focus on including children in the early childhood years (0-10 years) in intergenerational learning (IGL) activities with older adults (65 +). TOY demonstrated that intergenerational facilitators are crucial to the success of intergenerational projects and initiatives. Up to now however, IGL involving the youngest and oldest members of our society is not formally recognized and validated in adult education, nor in pre-service and continuing professional development of professionals working with these age groups. TOY-PLUS was designed to remedy this situation.
Activities
The partners in TOY-PLUS will jointly develop, test and disseminate an innovative online curriculum and methodology in IG work for practitioners in early childhood education and care (ECEC), social care and community work. At the end of the project the TOY-PLUS MOOC (massive open online course) will be publicly available on open online learning platforms.
We also will develop and test an IG certificate of quality (TOY Quality Stamp) with agreed standards for local authorities and educational institutions. The TOY Quality Stamp will be awarded to local authorities and service providers meeting the quality standards in IGL.
In all its activities, TOY-PLUS will forge a cross-sectoral and a community approach stimulating collaborations across the fields of adult education and training, health, community development, ECEC and care for older people.
Impact
The impact of TOY-PLUS will be that ECEC and Social Care practitioners will develop skills and competences to deliver successful IGL activities involving young children and older adults, paying particular attention to social integration and intercultural dialogue. The TOY-PLUS MOOC, designed to reach hundreds of practitioners internationally from 2018, will result in increased skills to develop, manage, deliver and monitor IGL practices Europe- and even world-wide. The TOY Quality Stamp process combined with the TOY-PLUS training will result in improved quality of IGL practice.
