International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI) is a knowledge organization in psychosocial development of children and young people growing up in difficult circumstances. ICDI believes in the power of children and young people, supporting their rights and addressing the underlying causes for the problems they face.
We aim to improve policies and practices by building the skills of: children, mothers, fathers, families, communities, local organizations, and authorities. ICDI also works with and for bigger international child rights organizations, supporting knowledge transfer through training, research, advice and partnership.
From Nepal to Nicaragua, and from Kiev to Katwijk, our dream is ‘a happy life for all children’. Serious and sincere, academic and practical, small and with major impact, ICDI has been promoting psychosocial well-being of children and young people for more than twenty years. www.icdi.nl

News

ICDI’s new edited book: Intergenerational Learning for ECEC practitioners

This month, ISSA Member International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI), launched the book Intergenerational Learning in Practice, which is published by Routledge[1]. Intergenerational Learning (IG...

Play Hubs: nonformal ECEC supporting young Ukrainian children in Slovakia and Hungary

From February 2022, 8 million Ukrainian refugees were registered across Europe. The vast majority has arrived in Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czech Republic. Forty percent of these...

Social Justice Begins in Early Childhood

Over the last few weeks, we have witnessed a massive mobilization of the Roma minority in Europe standing against injustice and the devastating outcomes of antigypsyism. Recent events in the Czech Rep...

TOY for Inclusion shares Impact Evaluation and Policy Recommendations

The TOY for Inclusion consortium has released the project’s Impact Evaluation and Policy Recommendations.Using a qualitative methodology for data collection and analysis, this report evaluates th...

Four Years Later: Reflections on the TOY for Inclusion Project

This month, the TOY for Inclusion project titled TOY to Share, Play to Care, co-funded by the European Commission and the Open Society Foundations, will come to a close. This project built and ex...

NEWS - Differences Vanish in Inclusive Children's Play Hubs

Offering children a safe and inspiring place to play and learn. It is the main thought behind TOY for Inclusion, an initiative with now eight indoor playgrounds in seven European countries.* Last...

NEWS – PINN Releases Portugal Site Visit Learnings

PINN, Proactive International Network for Newborn and Young Children, went to visit Coimbra (Portugal) to learn from local Prevention and Intervention Services in the Early Years. ...

NEWS - ICDI Assessed Child Wellbeing in 5 European Countries

Study reflects social and emotional wellbeing of young children in ECEC settings. ICDI assessed the social and emotional well-being of children using the Universal Psychosocial Indicator for Five-Year...

NEWS - 'Prejudice against Roma can be Overcome,' experts say.

An international event held by TOY for Inclusion shared achievements and lessons learned over the past two years. Thanks to the work of local communities and professionals, the TOY for Inclusion Play ...

NEWS - How to make an Inclusive Play Space? Download this FREE toolkit!

The new ‘TOY for Inclusion' toolkit provides everything trainers and practitioners need to setup safe play spaces for children. The toolkit pays particular attention to social inclusion in Early ...

EVENTS - ICDI's TOY Online Course is going Public

Piloting of the TOY Course in April and May, as part of TOY-PLUS was a huge success: 82 learners from Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Slovenia and Spain followed the online course and a...

ICDI and ISSA organized a TOY 4 Inclusion training

During a three day "Training of Trainers", 20 professionals were trained. The training is part of the TOY for Inclusion programme which aims to improve the transition experience of Roma...

Resources

Supporting Social and Emotional Well-Being of Children in Early Childhood Education and Care through Team Reflection

These Guidelines are the outcome of the second part of the SEED project, during which a group reflection pathway, called WANDA1, was piloted with 80 ECEC practitioners with the aim to help them to dea...

Happy Young Learners: Psychosocial well-being of Young Children in Ethiopia: Research study

Happy young learners: Psychosocial well-being of young children in Ethiopia report presents the findings and recommendations of a research and practice project about the psychosocial well-being of fiv...

TOY for Inclusion Toolkit: A step-by-step guide to creating inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Play Hubs for all generations

TOY for Inclusion Toolkit: A step-by-step guide to creating inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Play Hubs for all generations provides all the necessary conceptual and practical inform...

The Nest Center: a Home Away from Home

The Nest Center is an open, close-to-home type of center, where a stable, fixed group of 30 to 60 children aged 7-16 from multi-problem families spend time before and/or after school, and in weekends ...

UPSI- 5: The Universal Psychosocial Indicator for Five-Year-Old Boys and Girls

The UPSI-5 is an easy to administer instrument to measure the psychosocial well-being of 5 year old children. The UPSI-5 consists of 29 questions which can be filled in by someone, for example a teach...

ECD-QUAT: Quality Assessment Tool for Early childhood Development Services for Young Children

Ensuring quality in early years services is essential for young children's well-being and healthy development. The Early Childhood Development Quality Assessment Tool or ECD QUAT developed by ICDI is ...

Together Old and Young: a Training Manual for Intergenerational Learning Activities

Launched in 2012, the TOY project (Together Old and Young) is about bringing young children, up to 9 years old, together with older people for them to meet, get to know each other, learn and have fun....