The Butterfly Project: inclusion, participation and well-being of children with special needs in ECEC institutions.

The Butterfly Project has three main objectives:

1)To support the transition of children in vulnerable situations from home to ECEC institutions by developing and implementing a culturally sensitive transition model called the Butterfly Model (BM).

2) To design and implement at the European level an online learning program based on the BM for staff in ECEC institutions.

3)To identify new, flexible and culturally sensitive types of ECEC arrangements/institutions.

The Butterfly Project responds to The European Care Strategy (2022) that emphasizes the significant difference in availability and affordability for children's opportunity to participate in ECEC institutions. This applies to children with disabilities, from migrant and minority groups, and children with special needs.The European Child Guarantee (2021) concludes that a solution must be generated by cooperation between ECEC institutions, local communities, social, health and child protection services, families and social economic actors. The policy documents address different categories of children, and to make an inclusive approach, we use the broader term “children in vulnerable situations”. This is also done in order to avoid a medical, individual explanation of the child and not to victimise the child. Instead, we focus on the agentic, resourceful side of the child. All children are agentic, but their individual resources can be limited as well as the resources in their life situation.

The Butterfly Project relates to international policy goals for the inclusion of children in vulnerable situations in ECEC institutions (United Nation 2006, UNESCO 2020).

The focal point in the Butterfly project is to develop the Butterfly Model (BM) which works on two levels. The BM represents a scope on the child, and it gives concrete tools for the transition of children in vulnerable situations to ECEC institutions:

The scope is based on fundamental values about inclusion and human rights. The model insists on taking a child perspective and to perceive even very young children as agentic in the transition process.

The toolkit works on an operational level. We will at min. five tools which help children in the transition from home to ECEC institution.

Like previous Erasmus+ partnerships in the field of ECEC, the Butterfly Project also develops a learning program for staff. This is done in an online format which is easy to approach for staff members, who are not comfortable with traditional programs.

The project will increase the quality in children in vulnerable situations transition from home to ECEC by:

1) A culturally sensitive transition model: the Butterfly Model with min. 5 tools operational at EU ECEC level.

2) An open access online learning program based on the model’s scope and tools. This builds capacity - and improves the professionalisation of ECEC in the EU.

3) Identification of new, flexible and culturally sensitive types of ECEC. Thus, enabling change and transformation.