Rita Crecelius reports:
The year 2024 was dedicated to preparing the first facilitator training in Germany. In January, I received confirmation that the AEWB (Association of Adult Education Centres in Lower Saxony) would organize the first ICDP training leading to the qualification of facilitators in Germany. With my cooperating partners AEWB and Nifbe (Lower Saxony Institute for Early Childhood Education and Development), I held various events to publicize the training, including a nationwide online workshop in March. I also gave workshops at two major daycare conferences, which Nifbe helped organize.
All of these seminars and workshops were centred around the Headline “Emotionally Healthy Daycare with ICDP.” The slogan originated at an event in 2019 when I presented ICDP to a large daycare provider, and a professional said: “Rita—then ICDP is a tool for emotionally healthy daycare!” Nifbe found the term “emotionally healthy daycare” very apt in the context of its initiative on the topic of “Health and Well-being in Daycare Centres.” Thus, it became the motto for our joint initiative to inspire people to participate in Germany’s first facilitator training. Despite all efforts, the required number of participants was not reached, so the start of the training had to be postponed from August 2024 to February 2025. Currently (April 2025), the trainees are in the phase between Module 2 and Module 3 of the training and are about to begin their trial training sessions.