You are where you’re born

How supporting a sense of place can make children’s services more effective

New European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou believes that effective early childhood education and care is vital in helping the European Union meet its strategic goals over the next 10 years.

In the latest magazine from Children in Europe, A Sense of Place: environments, community and services for young children she said:

“Early childhood education and care have a vital contribution to make to the European Union’s strategic goals over the next decade as part of the ‘Europe 2020’ agenda, which will shape the Europe of the future. They are a core element in promoting economic sustainability and social cohesion. Rural areas in particular can benefit from new and innovative thinking in this area and I encourage Member States to learn from each other through shared experience. I will be working closely with my fellow Commissioners and national authorities to find ways in which we can achieve higher standards of education and care throughout Europe.”

Place and community are fundamental in shaping children’s lives, and services are more effective when they identify with the communities they serve. Rooting services in what is local not only makes them more relevant but also nurtures and supports the community as a whole.

How place-based, family and intergenerational learning can help tackle problems of service delivery in scattered rural communities, and reduced access to natural environments in urban areas is described in a range of international settings including:

 

• Farm kindergartens in Italy and Norway
• Family and intergenerational learning in England
• Roma children in Croatia
• Growing up in rural Poland.

 

There is also an exclusive interview with Scottish artist John Bellany who points to his east coast upbringing as a permanent influence on his life and work.

The magazine’s Editor Bronwen Cohen, of Children in Scotland, said:

“Solutions need to be local, but service providers can learn from experience and practice in other countries. Funding from the European Union has encouraged innovation in some European countries in tackling the challenges to effective service provision presented by geography and changing social and economic patterns, particularly in rural areas. A more systematic approach is now required across Europe to enable effective cross-learning.”

Secretary General of Eurochild Jana Hainsworth said:
“At the heart of Europe’s new 2020 vision is the concept of innovation. The examples in Children in Europe show that innovation is not just a domain of industry and science. It is crucial in the children’s sector too. Let’s be inspired and combine our efforts to ensure children’s rights and wellbeing take centre stage in the future of Europe.”

Director of Children in Northern Ireland (CiNI) Pauline Leeson added her support:

“Historically place and identify have divided people and communities in Northern Ireland; but as we continue to shake off the shroud of conflict and sectarianism we look to our leaders in political life who now have an opportunity to work together in a spirit of trust and co-operation to establish an effective integrated early childhood education and care system that embraces the local integrated solutions that are providing a better start for our children”

Martha Friendly, Executive Director of Childcare Resource and Research Unit in Toronto, Canada

“The most recent issue of Children in Europe, A Sense of Place: Environments, Community and Services for Young Children is a tremendous resource for the Canadian early childhood field. Canada – with our diverse regions and population, rural and remote communities, and cities and towns where access to natural environments for young children may not be easy – can gain much from the depth of knowledge about early childhood that experts in Europe have gained over the years”.