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December 2005:
INTRODUCTION TO ICDP BY ICDP CHAIRMAN
DEVELOPMENTS IN NORWAY
With the support of the Ministry for Children and Family Affairs, ICDP is developing a wide country program with ICDP projects reaching several different target groups:
1. Families from different ethnic minority groups
This project started in 2003 and up till today 100 facilitators were trained in 3 cities in Oslo, Drammen and Stavanger. The new project will build on the work done so far and ICDP will be implemented in other cities, starting with Bergen, Trondheim and some smaller cities on the west coast. Some of the facilitators will be trained to the level of trainers in order to create a larger team leading the ICDP work with families from different minority groups. The ICDP model will be used with refugee families also. The project leader is psychologist Mona Hannestad.
2. Ethnic minority families with children under child protection
The objective is both to adapt the program and to investigate its potential use for this highly vulnerable group. At the centre of the project will be four families from different ethnic minority groups, all with children under child protection. These families will participate in the ICDP sensitization program and they will be investigated as case studies with a qualitative methodology. This project has just started with a group of mothers from Somalia. The project is led by Mona Hannestad.
3. Families in general whose children are under child protection
The idea of this pilot project is to adapt the ICDP program for working with children and parents in vulnerable life situations. The implementation of the ICDP program through systems related to child protection appears to be one of the more challenging tasks. ICDP's format of working with parents in groups represents a new model and it is fulfilling the many requests for parents' guidance. The project leaders are two ICDP trainers, psychologist Ingeborg Egebjerg, and Clinical pedagogue Janni Eriksen.
4. Project for families with special needs children
This project is currently in process of being planned and will start in the spring of 2006. ICDP trainer Hilde Tornes is leading the project. She is the psychological and educational advisor at the Bergen municipality office, in the section for pedagogical and psychological services. The project will try out and adapt ICDP as an intervention program for use in kindergartens and possibly schools, focusing on families with special needs children.
5. Parents in prisons
This project was launched by The Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Ministry for Children and Family Affairs with the aim of applying the ICDP program inside the Norwegian prison system all over the country. The prison staff will receive ICDP training and use the program to sensitise parents living inside the prisons. The intention is to offer these parents an opportunity to develop and reflect on their role as parents. Many of the prisoners have regular contact with their children, and the idea is to assist parents to help their own children cope with the difficult life situation they are faced with, as well as focus on improving relational issues. The project is lead by psychologist Ingeborg Egebjerg, and the project coordinator for the program of parental guidance is Grete Flakk.
6. Evaluation project
This project will measure the impact of ICDP implementation on some selected target groups in Norway. The project is in preparation and is led by professor Karsten Hundeide.
7. Care for the elderly
A project proposal has been prepared in which the ICDP principles are adapted for the care of the elderly. A pilot project is to be implemented both in institutions in Oslo, as well as in Alicante, Spain. The coordinator for the project will be Angelica Majos, supported by Martin Waage and Helen Andresen. Funding is not yet clear.
NEWS FROM HAIFA, ISRAEL
Between 1998 and 2002, Alla Magidson was both the coordinator and the key trainer for ICDP in Ukraine. For the last few years Alla has been living in Haifa, from where she sends news about her work:
Alla (on the right) giving an ICDP course
"My work in Haifa started by giving a series of 3 day courses at the child diagnostics centre and in Technion dormitories for new mothers. Currently I am employed as psychologist working with ICDP on regular basis at the education centre called “Mofet”. This organization aims to improve the quality of education in Israel. As result of my work there has been improvement of the general atmosphere at the school, particularly in the interaction between the teachers, children and their parents.
Photo left: course participants
Lena and Alex are two professionals working with children and families at the Mofet centre, who showed deeper interest in ICDP and are now applying ICDP inside their professions. Alex Mnatsakanov, was born in Moscow where in 1997 he graduated in philosophy; in January 2000 he left Russia and did his master studies in sociology at the Haifa University, Israel. He teaches 3-5 year old children. Lena is qualified in special needs area and works in child diagnostics. She gives individual and group classes to parents and children, where she integrated the ICDP principles. Recently we have opened a kindergarten as part of the “Mofet” school, for children between 3 months and 6 years of age and we will be extending ICDP here too."
NEW PROJECT IN MINA CLAVERO, ARGENTINA
The ICDP facilitator, Virna Casuccio informs about recent ICDP developments in the area of Mina Clavero, where a group of professionals linked to the Hospital de La Paz, in the zone of Valle de Traslasierra are now starting a new project with the aim of reaching 70 families and children living in the surrounding communities. This group of professionals already received training in ICDP and will now be spreading the program through the health network.
Virna also writes that the ICDP team in Mina Clavero, in cooperation with local mothers and musicians finished gathering music material for the production of a CD. The CD will be finalized and produced early next year as a compilation of local songs, nursery rhymes, lullabies and word games. The music CD will be used as one of the sensitization tools at ICDP meetings with caregivers and children, as part of the ICDP pack of materials adapted to local context.
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