The Early Childhood Programme
The éist Project:
Over the past two years the early childhood programme has taken a leadership role in promoting diversity and equality awareness and training in the early childhood sector. Funded (2001-2004) under the National Development Plan 20002006 Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme and also supported by Bernard van Leer Foundation the éist project has laid the groundwork for mainstreaming equality and diversity training. The training approach has been promoted, developed and tested across the sector at pre-service, in-service and at supervisory level. The training has shown that the approach is a vehicle through which to promote anti-discriminatory practice and respond appropriately and inclusively to the needs of young children. This learning has been captured through evaluations of the training. A training manual Ar an mBealach arising out of the pilot training has been published and will be used in the training of trainers to deliver diversity and equality training. The training of trainer phase was unfortunately not funded under the Equal Opportunites Childcare Programme; the project is cuerrently seeing funding to deliver a training of trainers programme. The Bernard van Leer Foundation is supporting an interim development phase.
Actions Include:
Development, completion, and evaluation of 3 pilot training programmes at national level on diversity and equality in early childhood.
Delivery of introductary diversity and equality training to all 35 County Childcare Committee managers and development workers.
Development of a diveristy and equality training pack for City and County Childcare Committees. Coordinated training seminar for the City and County Childcare Cmmittees on how to use the pack.
Publication and launch of Ar an mBealach diversity and equality training manual for the early childhood sector on the 18th of Sept 2004.
Resources developed for use in the early childhood sector:
- Ar an mBealach diversity and equality training manual.
- Developed and published sequence cards and posters depicting Irish children from a variety of backgrounds.
- Awareness raising packs on diversity and equality issues for County Childcare Committees. The packs included: an information folder, awarenss raisning exercises folder, videos, Traveller jigsaws, childrens books and diversity and equality publications.
- Resource lists and general information packs on diversity issues for early childhood practitioners.
- Developed and produced Jigsaws depicting Traveller life and culture.
- Made submissions to various early childhood consultation processes on the inclusion of diversity and equality issues at national and policy level.
- Developed in consultation diversity and equality guidelines through the advisory subgroup to the National Coordination Childcare Committee with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
International work:
Working in partnership with the DECET Network to further the work at European and National level. This involves the development of a training manual and training for trainer programme at European level.
Representational Work:
The Early Childhood Programme works to enhance the circumstances of the Traveller child on a variety of statutory and voluntary committees.
Research
The Voice of the Child
The Voice of the Child Project was initiated by Pavee Point in early 2004 and has been developed in association with six organisations working with young Travellers1 as follow
- Mayo Travellers Support Group
- Co-operation Fingal
- Clondalkin Travellers Development Group
- Wicklow Travellers Group
- The Training and Education Support Project (TESO), Finglas, Dublin 11
- Pavee Point Youth Section.
The project has sought to enable young Travellers to voice their opinions on a variety of issues that they have identified as important to them. It arose from a recognition that recent efforts at a national level to consult with children and young people (e.g. through Comhairle and Dail na nOg) failed to reflect fully the voices, opinions and concerns of young Travellers. There was a need to understand the reasons behind this situation and to develop and test a process that would be designed specifically to enable young Travellers to articulate their experiences and opinions and have their voices heard.
Traveller Children and Education
Traveller children were interviewed in relation to their experiences in school. Their views were submitted to the development of the National Traveller Education Strategy.
Objectives
The Voice of the Child Project had four primary objectives as follows:
- To hear the voice of young Travellers on a variety of issues that they had identified as important to them.
- To test a process through creative media for enabling and empowering young Travellers to articulate their experiences and opinions.
- To consider the experience of Travellers in existing consultation processes and examine barriers to participation.
- To develop a final product that would outline this consultative process, articulate the issues raised by participants and explore deeper issues relating to consultation with young Travellers.
Conference: Foundations for Equal Opportunities for All in Early Childhood Care and Education
European Conference DECET (Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Training) Network. Conference Brussels 18th, 19th, 20th October 2007. Pavee Point invites you to download brochure for further information or for registration details log on to www.decet.org
Download the brochure in PDF format (size 300 Kb)
Jigsaw resource for young children:
Set of Four Eist Jigsaws
This set of four jigsaws represent the lifestyle and culture of Travellers and are for use in the Pre-School and Primary sectors. The photographs on the wooden jigsaws are by renowned photojournalist Derek Speirs and depict aspects of Traveller culture and identity. Available from Lisheen Toys Ltd. Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry, priced at 7 euro each. Ph & Fax: 066 7133436 lisheentoysltd@eircom.net
The results of the project research will be available in 2005
Contact us:
Key links:
The Bernard van Leer Foundation: www.bernardvanleer.org
