Joint Action Fund

BRIDGING THE GAP: BUILDING TRUST BETWEEN ROMA FAMILIES AND PRESCHOOL INSTITUTIONS

by Awen Amenca

This project addressed barriers to preschool participation among Roma families in the Czech Republic. By tackling mistrust and systemic biases, the initiative fostered understanding through consultations, workshops, and awareness campaigns. In collaboration with Ostrava University, PAQ Research, and the Czech ECD Platform, the project built trust between families and institutions while advocating for more inclusive, evidence-based early childhood policies.

The project led to tangible changes in how Roma parents, preschools, and public authorities engage with early childhood education in Ostrava. Roma parents shifted from being perceived as disengaged to actively shaping discussions on preschool enrolment, sharing experiences that transformed mistrust into confidence and collective reflection. Preschools gained a deeper understanding of families’ concerns, enabling trust-based dialogue. At the institutional level, early childhood education for Roma children began to be addressed as a systemic issue, with community knowledge informing policy and pre-election discussions at both the local and national levels. By connecting parental voices, institutional reflection, and policy dialogue, the project helped break cycles of mistrust and laid the groundwork for more inclusive and sustainable participation in early education.

Project Completed: December 2025

EARLY CHILDHOOD AS A KEY ISSUE IN THE NEXT ELECTIONS

by the Czech ECD Platform

The project aimed to strengthen the Czech Early Childhood Platform's advocacy and communication skills in preparation for national elections. By refining messaging and framing around early childhood issues, the initiative empowered members to engage decision-makers and the public with compelling, evidence-based arguments.

Their work significantly increased the visibility, credibility, and political relevance of ECD in the Czech Republic. It strengthened the advocacy capacity of 62 member organisations, engaged politicians, journalists, and civil society leaders nationwide, and reached more than two million people through a national media campaign. Strategic relationship-building before and after the elections enabled immediate dialogue with new political leaders and contributed to a concrete legislative change: an amendment to the Social Services Act that broadened access to early support for families, impacting 262 social service providers. These outcomes marked a meaningful step toward making early childhood care a recognised political interest. For more information, here is a link to their published media outputs.

Project Completed: December 2025

CHILD WELFARE ROUNDTABLE IN BALASSAGYARMAT

by the Lamenda Foundation

In Balassagyarmat, Hungary, this project set out to establish a dedicated roundtable on child welfare and protection to enhance collaboration among local institutions. While services such as nurseries, pediatricians, and educational programs exist, coordination has been inconsistent. The project aimed to ensure that children’s development is monitored and supported from pregnancy through school entry, with a focus on engaging parents, providing education, and improving interagency cooperation.

The project made tangible progress in strengthening cooperation around early childhood welfare in Balassagyarmat. Local professionals became more open to collaboration and shared responsibility, while parents actively engaged and contributed ideas, helping build trust between families and institutions. The project also initiated development of a local early childhood strategy for submission to the municipal council, establishing a shared framework for coordinated support from pregnancy through school entry. Ongoing dialogue with municipal leadership laid the foundation for continued cross-institutional cooperation and greater local ownership of child well-being.

Project Completed: January 2026

BUILDING FOUNDATIONS: STRENGTHENING EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT THROUGH COMMUNITY BUILDING AND ADVOCACY

by the OdPerinky

This national initiative in Slovakia aimed to raise awareness of ECD and drive systemic change through policy reform. The project increased public understanding, mobilized 1,000 ambassadors for the “first 1,000 days,” and advocated for legislative reforms, sustainable funding, and coordinated care. Building on the work of platform members (Carpathian Foundation, Cesta von, and SOCIA), the initiative sought to make ECD a recognized societal and political priority.

The initiative achieved tangible results in advocacy, policy, and collaboration. Platform members developed a unified advocacy strategy, improved coordination, and actively engaged in legislative processes. The project contributed directly to amending the Social Services Act, introducing a new social service and professional framework for parents and caregivers, effective January 2026. At the same time, a national awareness campaign highlighted the importance of the first 1,000 days and mobilized public support. New partnerships, such as with the Slovak Society for Primary Pediatrics and Care, continue to extend the platform’s reach. Together, these achievements advanced ECD as a recognized societal and political priority and established a foundation for ongoing advocacy and stable funding.

Project Completed: December 2025

CREATING CONDITIONS FOR LONG-TERM PROVISION OF ECD IN SLOVAKIA

by the SOCIA

This project addressed two key gaps in Slovakia’s ECD system: ensuring accessible information for parents from marginalised communities and formalising professional support roles. Working with families, the project co-created clear, practical materials to help parents understand and navigate early years support. At the same time, it advocated for legislative recognition and public funding for parenting support professionals, laying the foundation for sustained, systemic ECD improvement.

The project achieved tangible results for families and the ECD system. Parents in Roma communities gained accessible, practical guidance through co-created educational videos, building confidence and skills to manage common health and developmental issues at home. At the systemic level, the project contributed directly to the amendment of the Social Services Act, which formally recognises “support of parenting skills” as a professional, publicly funded activity starting from January 2026. This legal change standardises and secures ECD organisations’ work, paving the way for sustainable financing and the professionalisation of parenting support. Together, these advances connect immediate parental empowerment with long-term structural change in Slovakia’s ECD system.

Project Completed: December 2025

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SUPPORT THESE PROJECTS?

If this pooled fund interests you and you would like to join the philanthropic organisations supporting systemic change in ECD, please get in touch with the Places to Grow Project Lead, Maxim Dedushkov, at hello@weareholis.org.

The first Joint Action Fund call focused on supporting experiments testing innovative solutions in ECD, and projects aligned with Places to Grow’s strategic themes. The awarded projects have been carried out throughout 2024.

LOCAL INCUBATORS OF ECD

by the Czech ECD Platform

Emily Vargas-Baron, a researcher at Stanford, demonstrated that the most effective ECD programmes are always intersectoral: they also focus on parents and are coordinated with a shared vision. There are many ways to achieve this goal. This project aimed to determine which tool would be the most effective and preferred by local stakeholders in four chosen Czech municipalities.

The four direct goals of this Joint Action Fund project were the following: diverse stakeholder engagement as it is much harder to build cooperation without relation between individuals; gaining a deeper understanding of local needs to be able to support them adequately; exploring if the evidence-based Primokiz methodology, held by ISSA, sufficiently addresses local needs in the Czech context; and a preliminary research on which organisation in the Czech Republic can provide a Primokiz licence in the future.

The Czech ECD Platform collaborated closely with local governments to identify needs and has brought together diverse stakeholders in the ECD ecosystem through study visits, workshops, and regional research. This approach has fostered relationships and facilitated a collective vision for supporting ECD at the national level.

Project Completed: December 2024

COORDINATED SERVICES OF ECD IN A SELECTED LOCALITY IN THE BANSKÁ BYSTRICA REGION

by SOCIA

The project aims to pilot and verify a coordinated approach to providing early care support services in selected segregated communities in the Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia.

The coordinated ECD will implement the new procedures defined in "The Path of a Child with a Health or Social Disadvantage in the Early Childhood Support System" in practice. SOCIA participated in creating the mentioned material as part of the Permanent Interdepartmental Working Group on the Strategy and Action Plan of coordinated early intervention and early care services for 2022 - 2030 in Slovakia.

The three direct milestones of this Joint Action Fund project are the following: establishing cooperation with the chosen municipality - signing a cooperation agreement or memorandum; employing a local coordinator of ECD, and an agreement on the implementation of the child's journey through the early childhood support system across all areas (social, health, and education).

SOCIA successfully hired a Local ECD Coordinator who actively develops community activities. They have established regular collaboration among local organisations, resulting in consistent meetings to address specific family cases. Families have already shown greater trust and willingness to accept support, establishing a solid foundation for effective integrated services.

Project Completed: April 2025

TOWARDS IMPROVED QUALITY OF OMAMA AND THE SUBSEQUENT ECD SOCIAL SERVICE

by Cesta von

Cesta von’s project aims to evaluate and maximize the Omama program's experiences in shaping a systemic approach to early childcare through advocacy. The project has two key goals.

The first is research: Cesta von will conduct an in-depth program evaluation, assess existing data, and collect missing data to objectively identify the impact, benefits, and areas for improvement. The research will focus on the impact of ECD on parental competencies, barriers to access and acceptability, and the most significant contributors to impact. All relevant outcomes of the research and know-how will be shared with other ECD providers or the state.

The second key goal is advocacy: based on the research results, Cesta von will provide recommendations for the design of a state-supported early childcare social service. They will also share the knowledge acquired throughout this grant and actively advocate for the quality of planned systemic measures, creating recommendations for the quality framework of a newly established service.

They have collaborated with P2G Partners Schola Empirca and Socia throughout the project. They have partnered with Schola Empirica to collect comprehensive data through desk research, interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups. They are working with Socia and engaging relevant ministries to shape an effective model for a new law that would recognise ECD as an expert activity within social services legislation.

Project Completed: January 2025

ECD ECOSYSTEM MAPPING AND VISUALISATION PROJECT IN BANSKÁ BYSTRICA REGION

by Holis

Using a portfolio approach, the goal is to create a visual map of the current ECD ecosystem in the Banská Bystrica Region. Rather than focusing on isolated projects or sectoral challenges, the portfolio approach allows for a collection of initiatives to be viewed and managed collectively, ensuring synergies and unified goals. The ecosystem map will be a particularly useful resource for the ECD coordinator role of the Banská Bystrica Region.

Mid-Project Update: Working closely with the Banská Bystrica regional government office, Holis has created an ECD Ecosystem Map that acknowledges and highlights the existing ECD network (including the organisation and their services). The project’s data-driven approach has helped map the needs of children and families, assisting government decision-making and ensuring better resource allocation.

MEDIUM ARTICLE: OVERVIEW