Childcare and Integration of newly arriving immigrants

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Childcare and Integration of newly arriving
immigrants

• An action research project under the authority of
  the Commission of the Flemish Community,
  supported by the Federal Impulse Fund for
  Migrants

Veerle Vervaet VBJK
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Point of departure

• Newcomers participating in an integration
  programme do not have access to childcare
• Accessibility needs to increase

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Designing the action research project

• Prospection Phase
• 1.Check the willingness of Childcare and the
  Brussels Welcome Office for people of foreign
  origin (BON) to collaborate on childcare
  possibilities for newcomers

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• 2. Increase diversity in staff by
• Set up Qualifying Training for ex-newcomers
  to become childcare workers
• Set up Training for ex-newcomers to become
  a childminder in collaboration form

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• Cooperation with
• BON Brussels welcome office for people of
  foreign origin
• Flemish Services that offers every jobseeker
  mediation in employment and professional training
  (VDAB, BGDA,BNCTO, OOTB)
• CVO Centre for Adult Education Training
• EVA Emancipation through Labour organisation
  social economy

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• Similar experiences
• Ghent
• Cooperation programmes
• Occasional childcare and pedagogical quality
• The Netherlands
• Childcare in asylum centres
• Training for volunteers

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Experiment Childcare and Integration

• 4 action points
• 1.Childcare providers facilitate access for
  newcomers
• 2.In service training on respect for diversity
  and parental participation
• 3.Qualifying training and employment for
• ex-newcomers
• 4.Structural cooperation between BON and Childcare

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1. Childcare providers facilitate access

• Barriers
• Subscription policy
• Occasional childcare versus pedagogical arguments
• Languages

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2. In-service training for staff on diversity
and parental participation

• Reflecting diversity in
• Every day practise
• Visibility in the setting
• Language policy place of the home language
• In staff

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• Childcare as a meeting place for children and
  their families
• Working together as partners on the level of the
  child
• - Intake procedures
• - Regular evaluative talks

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• Inviting parents to participate and think with
  staff about the daily organisation
• Involving parents in the activities of the
  childcare community
• Organising informal meetings
• Starting up a foster ship between the habitual
  visitors of the centre and the newcomers

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3. Qualifying training and employment for
ex-newcomers

• Advantages
• Diversity in staff
• Broader perspective in reflection
• Children and families feel welcome

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4.Cooperation between intermediaries (BON) and
childcare centres

• Intermediary organisation
• Raise awareness of the importance of childcare
• Check the need of childcare
• Inform clients
• Support in finding a place
• Intake together counsellor and parents

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• Clear policy for BON-counsellors in
• How to find a place / Centralise requests
• How to communicate with the childcare centres
• Better planning time tables of the courses
• One staff member in charge to address

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Results

• 4 ex-newcomers received a certificate of
  Childcare worker and found a job in regular
  childcare
• About 70 children of newcomers found a place in
  the childcare centres involved in this process
• The childcare centres keep working on
  accessibility, respect for diversity and parental
  involvement. This improves the overall quality of
  care.

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• Structural cooperation between BON and the
  childcare centres
• Dissemination continuing project in 2007
• Ad hoc working group Social Childcare of the
  Commission of the Flemish Community

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• Project Social policy in childcare
• 1. Ad Hoc working group Social Childcare a
  cooperation between childcare centres to develop
  strategies to social inclusion
• 2. Intermediaries (VDAB,BGDA, BON, Language
  Classes etc) take steps to inform their target
  group about the importance of childcare.

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• 3. Create a platform to intermediaries and
  Childcare in order to increase accessibility and
  create a reciprocal subscription policy.
• 4. Support the childcare centers on respect for
  diversity and parental involvement.