TOY for inclusion of Roma

In general inclusive childcare centres work hard to reach out for the social mix that is common in their neighbourhood. Extra efforts for Romani families are needed. In this project several childcare centres, Playcentres and Centres for Children & Parents will experiment with intergenerational and inclusive activities.

TOY for Roma families

The official name of this international project is TOY for inclusion: Community Based Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) for Roma Children. TOY starts with a training. Several pilotprojects, including ECEC services, then organise intergenerational activities with special attention for Roma families: children, parents and grandparents.

TOY for Inclusion

Aims of the project are:

• to combat segregation and promote inclusion through family involvement and intergenerational learning (IGL) in ECEC settings involving Romani and non-Romani families;
• to strengthen the competences of professionals working with children and families in working in a diverse context;
• to facilitate learning and exchange in practice and policy across countries on how to increase social inclusion and desegregation.

The TOY4Inclusion Toolkit is online!

Romani Early Years Network

In this international project several research centres and training organisations from Slovenia, Croatia, Latvia, Slovakia, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy and Hungary work together. The project builds upon experiences from the Romani Early Years Network (REYN) and the previous TOY project in which VBJK, among others, developed expertise and methods on intergenerational learning.

International website & partners

There is more information on the official international website TOY for inclusion.

Besides VBJK following partners work together on TOY for inclusion:

• International Child Development Initiatives – ICDI (Netherlands, coordinator of TOY for inclusion)
• International Step-by-Step Association – ISSA (Netherlands)
• Open Academy Step by Step – OASS (Croatia)
• Centre for Education Initiatives – CEI (Latvia)
• Wide Open School – WOS (Slovakia)
• Partners Hungary (Hungary)
• Developmental Research Center for Pedagogical Initiatives Step by Step – DRCPI SBS (Slovenia)
• Associazione 21 Luglio (Italy)