ICDP Norway webpage: www.icdp.no
September 2023, Nordic conference in Oslo
ICDP in the care of older people – short update November 2022
Heidi Westborg’s summary of developments in 2021:
In ICDP Norway we are figuring out what it means to have become a democratic member-based organisation. Previously the board itself held the annual meeting and elected the new board members. In June 2021, we had our first open annual meeting in that elected the new board proposed by an independent electoral committee. Through increased participation we hope to spread further the ideas of ICDP.
We are also assessing how to follow up all the trained facilitators (approx. 4000) and parents who have been in contact with ICDP during many years. We have started arranging webinars and are looking for other follow up activities. The webinar themes this year have been dissemination of Master studies, talks about culture sensitivity, listening to our collaborating partners and in November we had a webinar on “sensitisation”.
Another focus is on implementation strategies. The question is, how to ensure that we spread the ideas of ICDP beyond training, to organisations, governments, parents and professional caregivers. This is a focus for ICDP Norway both in Norway, but also in talks with potential ICDP involvement in other places in the world.
In Norway we are also working alongside the government (BUFDIR). This is because the Norwegian government has allocated funding to disseminate ICDP as part of the introduction programme for refugees, in addition to piloting a programme for parents of youth.
ICDP Norway will also be looking specifically at drawing out the experience from years of integrating ICDP in kindergartens.
2021: Study finds ICDP programme works
ICDP in 2020 – during pandemic Annual report 2020
Video made during the pandemic: https://www.icdp.no/video-when-the-world-feels-insecure/
Update on ICDP with older people
ICDP in the care of older people
ICDP with public health nurses
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS:
In 1992, the ICDP foundation was registered in Oslo, with an international board of directors, led by Karsten Hundeide as chair. Over the years the ICDP programme demonstrated international relevance and adaptability to different target groups with only minor adaptations, and this led the board (in 2006) to change the name of the foundation and its programme from “International Child Development Programmes” to “International Child Development Programme”. In 2006, the board also decided to separate ICDP Norway from the ICDP foundation. ICDP Norway webpage: http://www.icdp.no/
Developments:
BERGEN RESEARCH STUDY
During 1991-1992 an ICDP project developed in Bergen linked to health stations. Primary health nurses were trained in ICDP and they implemented the programme with families with young children. This was also a research study conducted by a team of professionals from the Bergen University, which positively evaluated the impact of ICDP on participant mothers.
ICDP AND THE MINISTRY
In 1996, ICDP started to be involved in different training programs funded by the Ministry for Children, Youth and Families Affairs, gradually reaching several networks working with families and children in the country.
ICDP IN SCHOOLS
In 2001 a research project was set up, which took place in 4 schools; it tested out the applicability of the ICDP program for use in schools. Teachers were trained in ICDP and also participated in reflective forums that included analysis of filmed interactions showing their performance in the class and enabling them to construct better solutions for the future. The results were very positive, particularly in improving teachers’ conceptions about pupils in their care.
ICDP WITH MINORITY GROUPS
A new ICDP project started in 2002, offering support to the minority families from Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka. For this work the ICDP manuals were adapted, a new DVD was produced and the training procedures were revised. The ICDP booklet for caregivers, containing the 8 guidelines for good interaction was translated in Urdu, Somali, Arabic, Turkish and Tamil. The initial training took place in Drammen, Stavanger and Oslo. Over 100 people, 50 Norwegian and 50 from different minority groups were trained as ICDP facilitators. Over the next few years it was spreading to other cities, starting with Bergen and Trondheim and then to cities on the west coast. The project leader was psychologist Mona Hannestad. The ICDP work with minority groups developed a special feature in that the ICDP group meetings for parents were run by facilitators selected from the minority groups and they conducted the session in their native languages. Each facilitator was accompanied by one Norwegian professional who took a more passive role and assisted the meetings without speaking, except to answer questions relating to the Norwegian care and education systems. In 2006 trained were 60 facilitators and 8 trainers.
FORMATION OF THE SCANDINAVIAN NETWORK
The ICDP Scandinavian Network was formed in 2002, including ICDP members from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The network members will hold yearly meetings to exchange experiences and new developments.
ICDP AS A COUNTRY PROGRAMME
In 2005, ICDP signed a contract with the Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs and a project for parents was developed in order to implement the ICDP programme all over Norway.
CHILD PROTECTION
A pilot project for ‘families whose children are under child protection’ was set up for working with children and parents in vulnerable life situations. The project continued in 2006 and ten social workers from 5 child protection offices were trained as ICDP facilitators in order to apply the programme with groups of mothers. In the evaluation sessions both the trained social workers and parents found the ICDP programme useful in creating more positive relationships between adults and children and also among adults.
CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
Hilde Tørnes, a psychological and educational advisor at the Bergen municipality office, started to develop a pilot project adapting ICDP as an intervention program for use in kindergartens and schools, with special focus on families with special needs children.
ICDP IN PRISONS
The project ‘parents in prison’ 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 received ICDP training and used the program to sensitize parents living inside the prisons, offering these parents an opportunity to develop and reflect on their role as parents. Many of the prisoners had regular contact with their children, and the idea was to assist parents to help their own children cope with the difficult life situation they were facing, and also to focus on improving relational issues. The project was lead by Ingeborg Egebjerg, and the coordinator for the program of parental guidance was Grete Flakk.
ICDP FOR OLDER PEOPLE
Karsten Hundeide started to work on developing a research study to measure the impact of ICDP on some selected target groups in Norway. He also started to work on a project adapting ICDP for the care of the older people in institutions in Oslo and Alicante, Spain. The coordinator for this project was Angelica Majos, supported by Martin Waage and Helen Andresen.
ICDP NORWAY IS FORMED
In 2006, ICDP Norway was formed with Ingeborg Egebjerg as chairperson, and Marianne Fjetland, Tove Jeppson, Hilde Tornes, Mona Hannestad, Marianne Eriksen and Henning Rye as board members. On the international board thanks was given to long standing members who stepped down: Henning Rye, Markus Hoff Berge, Wilbert Verheyen, Pedro Mendes and Ronnaug Andersen.
The formality of splitting ICDP Norway from ICDP International was finalized in 2009 and an agreement for cooperation was signed between the two organizations. ICDP Norway was registered as an association.
EXTENTION OF THE PROJECT WITH MINORitY GROUPS
During 2006, the ICDP booklet with the 8 guidelines for good interaction was published in 6 new languages: Sami, Persian, Russian, Kurdish, Albanian and Vietnamese. ICDP Norway took over the cooperation with the Ministry for Children and Family Affairs, replacing ICDP International in this task. The Ministry employed two ICDP trainers, Grete Flakk and Mona Hannestad, to coordinate the ICDP nationwide project from their central office. ICDP was delivered to parents in general on one hand and in parallel there was another line of implementation focused on minority groups.
EVALUATION STUDY SPONSORED BY NORWEGIAN MINISTRY
The Ministry decided to sponsor a 3 year research project to assess the impact of ICDP in the country. For this purpose Professor Karsten Hundeide established cooperation with Professor Lorraine Sherr, from the University of London, who became the research leader, assisted by a team from the Ministry, from the Oslo university and from ICDP.
Throughout 2007, ICDP Norway participated in training programmes conducted by the Directorate for Children, Youth and Family, but it also began organizing its own training programmes for facilitators. In autumn the board arranged a seminar for 30 ICDP trainers at Vettre, outside Oslo.
ICDP FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
Karsten Hundeide worked on a new development of ICDP, to be included as part of the government assistance for asylum seekers. The target group for the pilot were families placed in 5 asylum centres in different parts of Norway. The ICDP project for asylum seekers was sponsored by the Ministry of Children and Equality.
EXTENTION OF THE WORK IN PRISONS
2007: ICDP training for caregivers in prisons was spreading through KRUS (Correctional Service of the Norwegian Staff Academy). The following year an ICDP trainer was employed by KRUS to arrange yearly courses for prison staff.
Stavanger was one of ICDP’s most active geographical areas in Norway, where the ICDP programme was implemented with groups of parents, including minority groups, through health stations, school-health services, kindergartens, and as an integrated part of the introduction services at Johannes læringssenter (learning centre which covers education for both immigrant children and adults in compliance with Norwegian law and regulations). The 8 network that use ICDP meet twice a year to discuss ICDP developments and to provide theoretical support to its members.
2008: ICDP Norway hosted the Scandinavia network meeting in Stavanger including 130 participants from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, who exchanged experiences between countries on two topics: how to evaluate the impact of ICDP and how to organize ICDP in a country.
As in the previous years the ICDP program has been spreading all over Norway through different fields of implementation, and this work continued to be coordinated by the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs. The process of negotiating terms of cooperation with the Directorate is ongoing. There were 27 new trainers, as well as new facilitators in 37 municipalities.
In Oslo the children’s services ‘bydelenes oppveksttjenester’ coordinated the ICDP implementation through health stations, kindergartens and schools; other areas included families with special needs children, as well as using ICDP through child protection services for children at risk. In Oslo there were 170 facilitators, 60 are from minority groups Two new DVDs were produced: one was used for the recruitment of parents from minority groups, and the other was on the subject of children with disabilities.
AWARD FROM THE MAYOR OF OSLO
In 2008, ICDP received an award from the Mayor for the best educational and awareness raising effort in Oslo. The award was given to Farahnaz Rastegar and Ellen Tronsmo for their work with ICDP and especially for the ICDP efforts reaching out to the minority population. ICDP is implemented throughout the city through different local networks such as kindergartens, social service groups and health stations.
During 2009, ICDP continued to spread all over the country with more than 1600 facilitators and 114 trainers. In May, in the outskirts of Oslo, there was a network meeting attended by 50 trainers who exchanged their experiences. A contract about the use of the programme was signed between ICDP Norway and the Directorate/Ministry (BLD). A new book was produced by Karsten Hundeide called “ICDP for facilitators working with parents from minority groups”.
In 2010, there was a Trainers’ Meeting which gathered around 70 trainers from all over Norway, from Alta in the north to Grimstad in the south.
ICDP AT OSLO UNIVERSITY
At the University of Oslo, Henning Rye introduced ICDP as a training for students, as part of their master studies. This proved very successful. Comments by one of the students: ” This ICDP training has given me a lot, both personally and professionally. It would have been a loss if I had not partaken in it. I therefore think that it should be available for those really interested and particularly those who also wish to continue as ICDP facilitators. Together with a more experienced ICDP facilitator I am now running a new group of caregivers – working with ICDP is now my part time job.” Later on Professor Berit Johnsen took over the ICDP training from Henning Rye. Hilde Tørnes offered support meetings for students and Erling Kokkersvold coordinated and organized the groups of caregivers to be trained by the students. Karsten Hundeide formulated a new project called “Fathers in close relations”.
2011 -2012:
FINAL REPORT OF THE RESEARCH STUDY
The research study about ICDP in Norway, which was requested and subsequently sponsored by the Ministry of Children and Equalilty produced the final report. The results were very positive – and were publicly presented in Oslo. This evaluation was conducted in cooperation with the University College London and the Institute of Psychology at Oslo University.
ICDP continued to be used all over Norway, in health units, kindergartens, child protection, pedagogical and psychological units, special needs, minority groups, and parents in prisons. Most ICDP groups were of mixed gender, although some like the Somali group targeted fathers only. ICDP was established at the centers for asylum seekers below 18 years of age. The ICDP booklet with the 8 themes on positive interaction was translated into Polish. In total there
were 2800 ICDP facilitators and 80 trainers.
ICDP FOR FATHERS
ICDP Norway carried out a pilot project called “Fathers in close relations” with five groups of fathers, adapting the methodology to this new target group. It was funded by the Children, Youth and Family Affairs and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. The evaluation showed positive results.
ICDP WITH FOOTBALL COACHES
ICDP foundation signed a contract for cooperation with the Valerenga Athletic Association (VIF), and a pilot project took place in the second half of 2012. The systematic collection of coaches’ experiences showed the ICDP programme to be useful.
Activities in 2015