The Training for the Early Childhood Intervention Teams of the Community Support Centers in Nova Zagora and Haskovo has Started
At the end of February and March 2021 our training for the Early Childhood Intervention teams of the Community Support Center, Nova Zagora, and the Community Center, Haskovo, have started. The training is part of a partnership initiative of Unicef Bulgaria and Karin dom “Building Capacity to Provide Quality Family-oriented Services under ECI in the Municipalities of Haskovo and Nova Zagora”.
After a meeting-conversation to assess the needs, the trainers from Karin Dom put together a program specially adapted to the needs of each of the teams. With the newly formed team in Nova Zagora, we started with the essence of early intervention, the structure, organization, and standards of services, as well as the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork. We examined in detail the stages of early child development from 0 to 3 years and the impact of the surrounding environment and good and responsive parental care on the development of the young child. And at this age, the biggest, most important role in the family. Therefore, it is important for us professionals to understand families, to be able to connect and properly communicate with them to help them take the best care of their children.
We have many more topics to consider and meetings with colleagues, through which they step by step increase their confidence, knowledge, and readiness to support young children with developmental difficulties and their families from Nova Zagora and surrounding settlements. After the period of intensive preparation through webinars and provided written resources, we foresee visits of our training team live in Nova Zagora during the summer. Then we will be able to make contacts with the other structures in the community that are important for early guidance and successful early intervention – nurseries, kindergartens, GPs, and pediatricians.
In our training with the Haskovo Community Center, the multidisciplinary team not only of the early intervention service but also of the other services of the center was involved. The team has undergone training in early intervention, as well as several years of experience in the field. The main focus of our training program with them is to build knowledge and experience, help the team to have a common understanding of the family-oriented approach, and how to successfully involve the family as an active partner in supporting the child. Colleagues expressed specific needs related to optimizing the organization of the service – the process of planning, provision, and documentation.
We will pay special attention to the construction of a partner network, through which to improve the targeting of more families of children aged 0-3 years. The team in Haskovo is motivated to move to provide the services on the ground, in the natural environment of the family, where the specialists perform an advisory role. We will be happy to support them, as the provision of early intervention services in the child’s natural environment corresponds to modern scientific evidence and creates the most favorable conditions for the implementation of a family-oriented approach. We look forward to the live meetings with the team in Haskovo in the summer.
The initiative aims to show a model for building and supporting local early intervention teams, which are tailored to the numbers, characteristics, and needs of the population in the community, as well as the municipalities’ ability to provide services with human, and financial resources and the necessary base. If we help in creating a network of early intervention services, children and families will be able to receive services locally in their community without having to travel long distances. This way we will better reach all children and families who need these services.
