Eurlyaid – The European Association on Early Childhood Intervention (EAECI) is a participative association of persons, interested in issues of early childhood intervention as well as a working party made up of representatives of parents’ associations, professionals and researchers, from various countries of the European Union.
EURLYAID, based in Luxembourg, was founded in 1988, during an international conference in Rotterdam by a small group of honorary parents, scientists and professionals from Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain.
Starting point: the upcoming EU and the need for good quality services for children with special needs and their parents, all over Europe. It was a working party supported by a (small) fund from the EU to enable working gatherings once per year for 4 days and 1 conference every 4 years.
The first years the group worked on the Manifesto, a document describing key elements on ECI, published in 1992/1993.
During 1990’s followed by work on for instance:
– study evaluation methods to define quality of services
– study and development of a curriculum for professional training and quality standards.
In 1999 was announced EU funding would end in 2000.
Until 2000 Eurlyaid was a “closed” working party with representatives/members from approx. 18 countries. All members valued continuation of the work and gathered during 3 years (on their own expenses) to find an alternative. It was found in:
- be project partner (on request) and share actively the extensive experience and knowledge gathered.
- organise conferences every year.
- transform into an open web-based community based on the extensive underlying network.
This resulted in conferences, from 2002:
Ireland, Cork, 2003, Belgium Butchenbach 2004, Finland, Jyvaskyla, 2005, Birmingham, 2005, Holland, Arnhem, 2006, Austria, Graz, 2007, Norway, Kristiansand, 2008, Spain, Madrid, 2009, Germany, Gera, 2010, Cyprus, 2011, Portugal, Braga, 2012, Croatia, Zadar, 2013 , Turkey, Antalya, 2014, UK, France, Paris, 2015, Moldova (with EASPD) ,Portugal, Lisbon and Spain, Valencia, 2016, Serbia, Belgrade 2017,Ukraine, Kharkov, 2018.
In between Eurlyaid members presented on multiple conferences, organised by fellow organisations.
Eurlyaid has 350+ registered members all over Europe and from outside the EU: from Iceland to Brazil. Membership is free of charge.
Current projects:
- by Velux foundation: the Agora project
- 2 EU projects
- a private donor
The work we do, the time we invest is on voluntary basis. We have no staff or paid positions.
Eurlyaid – EAECI aims at (1) Increasing the quality of life for parents and children with special needs, through early childhood intervention (within the context of inclusion and gender mainstreaming), (2) Stimulating the growth and development of early childhood intervention on a European level, (3) Increasing sensitivity to the values and ethics of early childhood intervention, as described in the Manifesto and (4) Increasing knowledge and expertise in the field of early childhood intervention.
These aims are pursued by activities such as (a) Disseminating knowledge, experience and expertise in early childhood intervention to parents, professionals, researchers and practitioners (b) Promoting the exchange of information, experience and expertise, in ways that are easily accessible to all, by creating an European Internet Community, (c) Increasing the development of good practice, (d) Supporting existing ideas of good practice and networks in early childhood intervention and acting as a reference system, (e) Initiating scientific research in the field of early childhood intervention, (f) Initiating discourse about training-programmes for professionals, (g) Supporting exchange of personnel, (h) Initiating and participating in projects, (i) Organising conferences, seminars and symposia, (j) Enhancing the public profile of early childhood intervention.
