TOY for Inclusion Archives

Toolkit to bring play and inclusion to refugees living in remote communities

Mobile Play Hubs are a more flexible and immediate response to offer high-quality nonformal educational support to children and families. The below resources are intended for organisations wishing to set up and run Mobile Play Hubs for children aged 0 to 10 years old. It is also useful to regular Play Hubs and other non-formal ECEC settings that want to make (outdoor) play more accessible to children of all ages.

The Toolkit is divided into two parts (Operating guidelines and 16 Activity cards) with which practitioners will be able to set up a Mobile Play Hub and increase their knowledge about different forms of outdoor play. The Activity Cards provide inspiration to make outdoor play as accessible as possible.

You can download “Mobile Play Hub – Operating Guidelines and Outdoor Play” in English, Hungarian, Slovak, and Ukrainian and the “Mobile Play Hub – Activity Cards” in English, Hungarian, Slovak, and Ukrainian as well.

Toolkit on inclusive community-based ECEC

Inclusive education requires the use of varied strategies and techniques to ensure equal participation of all children to advance their development. Due to its nature and qualities, play forms part of flexible, child-centred and participatory/experiential educational strategies for celebrating diversity in education.

This Toolkit is for practitioners in any non-formal setting for children 0-8 years old interested in strengthening inclusive education. More about this resource can be found here.

The Toolkit is available in English. Translation in Ukrainian will be available soon.

Activity Cards for the Toolkit on inclusive community based ECEC
The Activity Cards were created to be used in the Play Hubs by practitioners to promote inclusive formal and non-formal education with young children and their parents, paying special attention to children with disabilities and special needs. However, they can be used and adapted by any other formal and non-formal service.

It can be downloaded in English, Slovak, and Ukrainian, with Hungarian translation coming soon.

‘Play for Inclusion’ Handbook and Activity Cards

Professional development is key to the quality and impact of any ECEC service. Professionals working with refugee children need appropriate knowledge, competencies, and skills to build safe environments and promote the integration and well-being of distressed children and their caregivers.

The ‘Play for Inclusion’ Handbook and Activity Cards is a new resource for practitioners who work in non-formal early childhood education and care (ECEC) services supporting the integration and psychosocial well-being of young refugee children and their caregivers. Read here for more information.

The Handbook and Activity Cards are available in English, Croatian, Slovak, and Ukrainian. Translations in other languages will be available soon.

Monitoring and Evaluation Report of the TOY for Inclusion Play Hubs 2021

Category: TOY for Inclusion | Types of resource: Report | Year: 2021 | Author: TOY For Inclusion |

The TOY for Inclusion consortium’s Monitoring and Evaluation report evaluates the impact of TOY for Inclusion’s Play Hubs from February to December 2021 and highlights the successes of this innovative approach and challenges that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Download Resource

Impact evaluation and policy recommendations final report and executive summary

Category: TOY for Inclusion | Year: 2021 | Author: Early Childhood Research Centre (ECRC) at Dublin City University |

TOY to Share, Play to Care was a two-year project, which built on the work of the TOY for Inclusion project.

The initial TOY for Inclusion project developed and piloted Play Hubs, i.e., low-threshold, community-based, and informal early childhood settings open to young children, their families, and members of local Roma communities. Play Hubs offer toys for borrowing, stimulating activities for young children, opportunities for inter-generational encounters, and generally safe and welcoming spaces for everybody.

The follow-up project TOY to Share, Play to Care took the existing Play Hubs as its starting point and built on their experiences in order to scale up the model.

Between 2017 and 2020, 16 Play Hubs opened in eight EU countries (Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Turkey). Through the Play Hubs’ activities, over 10.000 children, 5.000 adults (parents and grandparents), and 1.000 practitioners were reached.

This report focuses on three research questions:

What does impact/making a difference mean to your locality in relation to inclusive early years community initiatives i.e., this project? How do you know? For whom?
What do you envisage will help you make a difference to your locality in relation to inclusive early years community initiatives?
What do you envisage will make it difficult to make a difference in relation to inclusive early years community initiatives?

The research questions were explored using a qualitative methodology for data collection and analysis.

Download the Executive Summary here.
Download the full report here.

TOY for Inclusion – Voices of Children

Category: TOY for Inclusion | Year: 2019 | Author: TOY For Inclusion |

Social inclusion begins with young children’s eagerness to play together.

TOY for Inclusion Play Hubs offer inclusive spaces where children and families from different backgrounds are encouraged to play and learn: Children are allowed to borrow toys, parents can gather information about their child’s development and individuals of all ages are given space to come together.

Download the booklet, which shares the stories told by the children attending these Play Hubs.

Download Resource

TOY for Inclusion: project results

Category: ECD and Services | Types of resource: Tool | Year: 2020 | Region: EU |

TOY for Inclusion has opened 15 Play Hubs in eight European countries: Belgium, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy and Turkey.

Thanks to the work of local communities and professionals, the TOY for Inclusion Play Hubs provide opportunities for children and adults, Roma and non-Roma, to integrate and develop.

The project has been successful in fostering social inclusion for Romani young children and families, enhancing social cohesion and easing out the transition to primary school.