TOY4Participation: Promoting Participation, Democratic Engagement, and Community Transformation in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings

ongoing

Meaningful child participation in ECEC settings is the cornerstone of the TOY4Participation project. Recognising the significance of early years in shaping lifelong participatory practices, the project seeks to fill a critical gap in existing child participation mechanisms and address the need for young children to be included as active decision-makers in matters relevant to them. This project leverages the innovative framework of the TOY4Inclusion Play Hubs: community-based, inclusive, non-formal education and participation spaces for young children and families, that specifically ensure the inclusion and engagement of young children from vulnerable backgrounds, including migrants, refugees, Roma, and children with special needs. The overall objective of the TOY4Participation project is to promote the meaningful participation of children aged 0-10 from diverse and vulnerable backgrounds in their local contexts by enhancing the role of TOY for Inclusion Play Hubs as effective platforms for civic education, community engagement, and transformation. The project aims to reach directly at least 2400 children, 30% from vulnerable backgrounds. ICDI, along with partner organizations in the Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Latvia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Ukraine, will develop, pilot, and disseminate the TOY4Participation Toolkit, a Toolkit on Meaningful Child Participation in ECEC, which will include a conceptual framework and a collection of approaches and methodologies specific to early childhood that can be adapted and adopted in non-formal and formal ECEC, as well as in community organisational, civic and institutional spaces. The project aims to empower TOY4Inclusion Play Hubs to influence the broader community and policy frameworks, ensuring that the participation of all children, especially those who are typically underrepresented, is embedded into the fabric of local, national, and European policy-making and educational practice.