Last week, Ketevan Sulava and Catarina Alves together with Eva Deakand and Miroslav Sklenka represented ICDI at the Kick-off meeting of the Places to Grow Programme in Hungary, organised by Holis.
Places to Grow aims to promote coordination among Early Childhood Development (ECD) services for children from marginalised communities and ethnic minorities (e.g., Roma), to build knowledge of policy makers and the workforce for future greater focus on early childhood services, and to create evidence for reforms of financing of early childhood systems and follow-up advocacy at national and the European Union level.
The 2-day workshop brought together civil society organisations working on Early Childhood Education and Care projects (ECEC) in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary to discuss inclusive ECD, cross-sectoral approaches in ECEC, inspirational practices, capacity development opportunities, and monitoring and evaluation. ICDI facilitated group discussions on Multistakeholder Projects, Play Hubs (under the TOY for Inclusion programme), ICDI’s capacity building approaches and opportunities, and study visits.
During these small group discussions, partners considered how they could work together within the Places to Grow Programme and beyond. They identified thematic areas and inspirational projects for future collaboration in the ECEC sector. ICDI, together with workshop participants, outlined the following six topics to facilitate learning, knowledge sharing, and study visits within this partnership:
- Cross-sectoral cooperation and integration of services;
- Importance of early years;
- Reflective practices and quality assessment;
- Intergenerational learning;
- Diversity and inclusion in ECEC;
- Learning through play.
Programme partners will meet again in the fall 2022, to work further on collaborative efforts for inclusive and sustainable ECEC, the involvement of stakeholders, and turning this collaboration into long-term partnerships.
