Children under 3 years of age are particularly vulnerable
1 in 10 children in Europe suffer from severe domestic violence, but children under 3 years of age are particularly vulnerable to the risks of domestic violence. Signs of domestic violence for young children often go unnoticed because children themselves are not yet able to tell others about what they have experienced. The infant’s and toddler’s experiences remain as unconscious, non-verbal memories that the nervous system uses as a basis for the rest of life, and these experiences may cause serious and irreversible consequences for the child’s health and well-being.
You can help!
Pre-school is the place where a child is away from home for the first time for a long time. The child care specialist has the opportunity to systematically observe the child in the long term and notice signs that the child has suffered from violence. We want to raise the awareness of child care professionals and strengthen their ability to recognize the violence experienced by children, attract support and provide trauma-informed care in their daily work with children. Target group: child care professionals who work with children aged 0 – 3 years.
AVAILABLE SUPPORT TOOLKIT
Currently, several support tools have been developed that pre-schools can use in their daily work directly with young children – up to 3 years of age. These materials are available here for free.
Purpose: to help child care professionals recognize the signs of domestic violence and refer the family for receiving appropriate support.
What you will find in it:
- Self-assessment tool for childcare professionals – assess how you feel right now.
- A three-step screening tool – assess whether the child has signs of a traumatic experience.
- Reporting guidelines – find out who and how to report in case of symptoms.
- Guidelines for communication with parents – find out how to successfully talk to parents of children.
Purpose: with clear guidelines to help specialists provide adequate support to the child in daily care, taking into account the violence experienced by the child.
- What is trauma?
- Impact of trauma in the long term
- Trauma-informed care in pre-school
- Care for children up to 3 years of age who have faced a traumatic experience
- Methodological materials for implementing trauma-informed care
TRAINING
Valuable materials are often not used because it is difficult to understand how to practically apply them in daily work, but professionals of “Centrs Dardedze” can help.
If the principle of a pre-school is familiar with the above-mentioned materials and wants to provide their team with practical training in the use of these protocols, we invite you to apply! Throughout the training, we will provide practical information about the available resources – the protocol for recognizing and reporting violence, as well as the protocol for trauma-based care.
Target group: principle, management team members, and employees of pre-schools – teachers, assistants and supporting personnel who work with children up to 3 years of age.
Duration of training: 4 hours (divided into 2 hours per day – we agree on the specific time of the workshop with each pre-school)
Price of training: EUR 200.00
Content of the training
About the Protocol on the Procedure for Recognition and Reporting of Violence:
- Tasks related to the signs of abuse against young children
- A practical insight into the application of assessment in pre-school
- Advice on the reporting procedure, outlining the role and competence of the educator in reporting
- Role-plays to improve communication skills for parents
- Insights into self-screening and educator well-being or wellness to avoid unintentional harm to a child
About the Trauma-Informed Care Protocol:
- In-depth information on the importance of the first 1,000 days in a child’s development
- Understanding traumatic experiences and their consequences
- Tasks about basic principles of trauma-informed care
- Practical information on how to use trauma-informed care on a daily basis
More information: annija.kandate@centrsdardedze.lv
***
The project “ECLIPS – to promote professional competence in the prevention of violence by introducing and implementing guidelines and a training programme for pre-school education staff” is co-financed by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) programme of the European Union in accordance with grant agreement No. 101005642.
Application:
Please, apply the representatives of your pre-school to these trainings individually.