TOY for Inclusion: a new IGL project in Roma communities

The TOY approach is spreading!

We are very excited to share another good news this week: the European Commission will fund the 2-year project titled ‘TOY for Inclusion: Community Based Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) for Roma Children‘, starting in January 2017.

This project will promote the active involvement of Romani and non-Romani communities in ECEC services, through the development of toy libraries and intergenerational learning (IGL) activities in 6 EU countries. Toy libraries are a successful approach to overcome segregation, provide access to quality non formal ECEC services that improve transition experience to formal education and build the capacity of parents. IGL activities within toy libraries will involve different age groups, including young children and senior adults, learning together and learning from each other. IGL activities will challenge stereotypes and foster the values of solidarity, respect and acceptance of the ‘other’.

TOY for Inclusion is the result of the cooperation between International Child Development Initiatives – ICDI (NL), International Step-by-Step Association – ISSA (NL) and six members of the Romani Early Years Network – REYN:  Developmental Research Center for Pedagogical Initiatives Step by Step – DRCPI SBS  (Slovenia), Open Academy Step by Step – OASS (Croatia), Centre for Education Initiatives – CEI (Latvia), Wide Open School – WOS (Slovakia), Centre for Innovation in the Early Years – VBJK (Belgium) and Partners Hungary.