NORWAY:
ICDP is spreading with government support as a national programme in Norway. The authorities recommend ICDP in their national introduction programme for refugees. In Oslo, on 23-24th of September 2020, an ICDP network conference was arranged by the family protection offices Drammen-Kongsberg. The conference was for trainers and trainer candidates and the theme was “ICDP values”. Participants had the option to meet on the first day and continue digitally on the second day, or to participate exclusively digitally. Helen Christie from ICDP Norway gave a talk during this event. Heidi Westborg, the ICDP Norway chairperson, informs that they obtained project funding from the Directorate for Integration and Diversity to use ICDP groups to disseminate information about covid-19 to groups in society that do not have Norwegian as their main language. ICDP Norway held its annual meeting in June 2020, when it was decided to open ICDP Norway for membership, starting from the autumn. The team is developing a digital platform to share ICDP news, materials and training.
DENMARK:
The Danish Centre for ICDP now offers training in the ICDP programme as what they named blended learning. Blended learning is a combination of traditional teaching in person as well as various e-learnings sessions. The training consists of 2 sessions in person and 6 digital sessions of a maximum of 3 hours each. The digital sessions include E-learning and study groups online. The advantage of this type of course is that the e-learning part creates more flexibility for participants to organise their own training course. The training is specifically offered to those who are affiliated with or part of an organization or institution working with the ICDP programme. The training consists of research-based theories (primarily from developmental psychology and positive psychology) that demonstrate that the relationship is the cornerstone of learning, development and well-being and of the analysis and reflections of participants’ interaction with others to develop reflexive awareness and sensitivity that is essential for relational competence. A maximum of 15 participants are taught. The training is distributed over a period of 5 months and consists of reading a basic book, as well as tasks between the course days. The home task consists of model testing, as well as video recording and analysis of own interaction. The Danish Centre for ICDP has also invested a substantial portion of their funds to making didactic videos about the 8 themes for good interaction.
SWEDEN:
In the absence of physical meetings due to corona virus, the ICDP Sweden’s recommendation to its network is to start both educational and guidance groups via digital platforms. The policy is that each educator and guide should follow general advice and regulations that apply both nationally and locally. The ICDP training course is organized over four full days. The first two training days are conducted digitally via the Zoom platform and the other two days are held with physical presence. The Foundation believes that training can be conducted digitally by using a system that is stable and works well with several participants. The digital system must also allow for subdivision into small groups, as knowledge transfer of the programme’s content takes place mainly through exercises and group discussions. However, the intention may be that guidance groups may, whenever possible, transition to physical encounters. The ICDP Sweden Foundation developed short videos with ICDP messages and produced two new booklets in spring and summer of 2020 and these are available from their webpage: https://www.icdp.se/.