Strengthening and Supporting the Early Childhood Development Workforce - ECD PLUS

The project addressed specific educational needs in the ECD sector. We saw it as a strategic initiative to bring about meaningful and lasting changes in the way education is delivered and experienced. Key points included: Early Brain Development: Acknowledging that 90% of a child's brain capacity develops before the age of 5, yet those serving young children were often undervalued, underpaid, and inadequately prepared. Increasing Recognition of ECD Services: Despite the growing global recognition of ECD services, there was still insufficient attention to the early years workforce, which plays a critical role in influencing children’s learning and development. Professional Development: The need for professional development programs for the ECD workforce, considering their diverse backgrounds and experiences, to impart essential knowledge and skills. Systematizing Approaches: Addressing the limited efforts to systematize the various approaches across the entire workforce, especially for those working with disadvantaged families and young children. Recognizing that in many regions, home visits, a vital component of early child support, were not reaching the most vulnerable or tailored to specific family needs.

The objectives of the ECD PLUS project were as follows: The main aim of the project was promoting innovation: to support a partnership initiative aimed at promoting innovation in the education of young children, their parents, and teachers, including the exchange of experiences between partners. The overall goals were professional development of ECD workforce: to strengthen and support the continuous professional development of the ECD workforce, particularly those working with young children from socially disadvantaged environments and their parents, introducing new teaching methodologies: providing pilot training on new teaching methodologies for use in both formal and non-formal educational settings across Europe, enhancing early learning and interaction: targeting to increase access to multi-sectoral services for parents and children, including prenatal care, and enhancing early learning and parent-child interaction. A subsidiary goal was the engagement of authorities: engaging local municipal and national authorities in each country in the project's implementation to ensure short-term effectiveness and long-term sustainability.

The partners have cooperated on all the activities foreseen in the project application. We implemented the Learning/Teaching/Training Activities: C1 - C4 Trainings of Trainers in Slovakia, Serbia, Hungary and Italy and C5 - C8 Training of ECD Workforce in Slovakia, Serbia, Hungary and Italy. Main training topics of the training activities were: - Parenting with Confidence methodology - Home visiting methodology - Persona Doll methodology – Education for Social Justice methodology. Each of the partners organised a local Multiplier event: Four advocacy roundtables E1 - E4 were realised in Slovakia, Serbia, Italy and Hungary. Four project results PR1 - PR4 were developed and translated to national languages. During the project implementation period, the partners attended three Transnational project meetings, one online and two in-person in Roma (September 2022) and Bratislava (October 2023).

In course of the project, four project results were created. Two newly developed advocacy tools to advocate for the higher quality of Early Childhood Education and Care: PR1 - Report on ECD Policies in Partner Countries provides a comprehensive overview of the state of Early Childhood Development in each participating country that covers aspects such as the legislative frameworks, main actors in ECD, recent changes in the field, research focus areas, parental involvement, groups at risk, pressing ECD issues, examples of good practice, and a SWOT analysis for each country. This project result informed the creation of PR4 - ECD Policy Recommendations for EU and National Stakeholders developed towards the end of the project, intended for policy makers on different levels. In addition to these advocacy tools, two innovative practical training tools were developed. PR2 – Working with Children from Disadvantaged Environments and Their Parents – a training manual on parenting and home visiting, and PR3 – Respecting Diversity – a training manual on Persona Doll Methodology and Education for Social Justice. These results were created with the goal to enable the participants of our activities to - Strengthen the functioning of families within communities through the support of parents (mothers and fathers) in their efforts to raise their children in a safe and caring environment. - Provide parents with the opportunity to acquire the necessary information, develop their social skills and knowledge on early childhood care, importance of their parental role, diverse models and approaches to parental care, especially in terms of their communication with their children and their mutual understanding, their opportunities to support their children's learning and help them build a positive relationship to learning. - Explain to parents the importance and meaning of participation of their children in pre-primary education in kindergartens. - Strengthen the level of tolerance between non-Roma and Roma parents. - Reduce the level of undesirable and inappropriate parental attitudes and practices regarding the education of children from marginalized communities. - Empower participants to discuss 'sensitive topics', such as poverty, disability, exclusion, rejection, fear, violence, etc. with children - Empower children to critically think and openly talk about their feelings and to resist biases, stigmatisation and discrimination. - Enhance the psychosocial life of young children and build community in the classroom. - Get theoretical overview and knowledge about most relevant concepts related to diversity, interculturalism, equity and social justice. - Build the critical consciousness trough naming reality, giving voice to those who are usually silenced and by building alliances. More than 20 new trainers of trainers and more than 80 ECD professionals and para-professionals were trained during Learning/Teaching and Training activities working in more than 20 formal and non-formal ECEC settings in the four participating countries. The trained EDC professionals have conducted workshops directly with the target group of children and parents in the ECEC settings they work in as a follow up to being trained in the new methodologies. Also the trainers of trainers have conducted more training activities in non-formal ECEC settings and shared the new methodologies with the staff working in the network of 10 ECEC Playhubs is Slovakia, working with the target group of Ukrainian refugee children and their families.