Demo ECD training crèche that support local community ecd inititiatives

Halley Stott day care centre serves as a model of a well-functioning crèche that offers training and support to local creches while directly serving a certain number of children with early childhood development. The focus is on the delivery of good quality cognitive stimulation of young children through various means including strengthening the capacity of practitioners and caregivers to intentionally stimulate young children, providing crèche service to the community and conducting pop-up creches in community. Project objectives:

• to improve the quality of early childhood development by creating environment that fosters optimal development of young children in the community
• To strengthen the capacity of local ECD centres to deliver good quality cognitive stimulation of young children.

Key project activities: Identify and train trainers on the curriculum. Conduct community mapping of resources available in the community. Local ECD centers are identified and recruited into the program. Pop-up creches are formed by trainers to help children who have no access to ECD centers. Conduct needs assessment to identify areas of improvement for each ECD initiative. Individualized care plan for each site is developed and implemented by trainers. ECD practitioners are trained on the national curriculum. Trainers conduct support visits to ensure that practitioners apply knowledge and skills gained from training. Facilitating educational information sharing amongst practitioners through different medium platforms. Facilitating the development of sustainability plans for individual ECD initiatives. Facilitating ECD centers compliance with laws. Facilitating referrals to relevant service providers to address special cases. Collaborate with, department of Education, Health departments, Social development, SAPS, Department of Agriculture and Rural development, KZN University and other nonprofit organizations to facilitate access to resources needed by individual sites. Facilitating early parental relationship and skills. Facilitating caregivers' involvement in child stimulation at homes. Facilitate and promote child protection in the ECD centers and the community.