Integrated Initiatives in Ceará

A broad-reaching and powerful partnership between the Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, Porticus Latin America and the

Bernard van Leer Foundation, in collaboration with the Government of the State of Ceará, was reinforced in 2022. Formally established in 2019 to strengthen the integrated policy to provide support to families in highly vulnerable situations, the partnership is based upon a connection of initiatives with the State Government’s challenges and strategic targets focused on Early Childhood.

Amongst the strategic objectives established by the Ceará State Government, the coalition works in the area of infant education, aiming to improve access and quality; parenting, involving children in a greater number of activities designed to provide comprehensive encouragement, whilst finding means of reducing domestic violence; management and cities in 24 municipalities, promoting the development of an integrated management model for the early childhood policies focused on these families.

In 2022, as well as continuing to implement these initiatives, the sustainability plans of each one were structured together with the state government. The coalition operates with six projects directly supported by the Foundation: System for Assessment of the Quality of Infant Education in Ceará; Quality and Equality Parameters for EI Cearense; Training for Implementation of the Curriculum; Study of the Profile of the Families of the ‘Cartão Mais Infância Ceará’, and the ACT and Strategic Planning for the Early Childhood Policy Program.

Ceará: ACT Program: to educate children in secure environments

The 'ACT Program’ focuses on positive parenting and the prevention of violence against children. It was created using domestic and international evidence recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and developed by the American Psychological Association in 2001. It has now been adopted by 16 countries, having arrived in Brazil in 2012.

In Ceará, the program is being implemented in 24 municipalities, focusing primarily on the families being attended to under the ‘Mais Infância Ceará’ Program, and is monitored by implementation and impact studies. In eight weekly and interactive meetings, parents and carers are provided with guidance on educating children in safe spaces, and on the creation of a stable and warm home environment.

Amongst the stand-out results are the training of facilitators in 22 of the 24 municipalities, with the start of group meetings with the families, and the conclusion of the creation of the Program’s State Center.

Ceará: System for the evaluation of the quality of infant education in Ceará

This initiative has developed a system designed to monitor the quality of infant education in Ceará, based upon the collection of data from 12 municipalities, using instruments validated and adapted to the specific context of Ceará, in line with the Quality and Equality Parameters developed. They gauge the quality of the conditions involved in the offer of education to children aged between 2 and 5, and children’s learning in the final year of pre-school.

Generally, the quality assessment aims to systematically identify the vulnerabilities that exist in each education system allowing for the articulation of actions and policies designed to improve the services. The project envisages the transfer of technology to the State Education Department (SEDUC) and the municipal education departments with the aim of ensuring that the evaluation process extends over time and reaches every municipality in Ceará.

In 2022, the pilot collection of data was finalized. Feedback on the results was provided for each one of the municipalities, with the results being articulated into the action plan for implementation of the Quality Parameters. The structuring of the system was concluded based upon the work with SEDUC. Furthermore, part of the Department’s technical team took part in the training sessions for use of the assessment instruments - an important stage in the social technology transfer process.

In this effort to assess children’s education and, most importantly, guarantee the equality of educational opportunities within the context of the ‘ Mais Infância ’ program, the coalition supported the State Education Department in its implementation of the document in the municipalities over the course of 2022.

Ceará: Training for Implementation of the Early Childhood Education Curriculum

Ceará: Study of the Profile of Families in the Cartão Mais Infância Ceará program

This initiative provided support for the provision of training sessions by the State Education Department to regional educators, cascading down to the professionals in the municipalities.

In 2022, one important result was the integration of the teacher training with the manager training. The training cycle was performed in four modules, involving in-person meetings, readings, interactions in forums and delivery of feedback.

This initiative was a collaboration for an assessment of the parenting and profile of those benefiting from the ‘Cartão Mais Infância’, a Ceará government program directed at families in situations of social vulnerability, providing R$ 100 per month to the beneficiaries.

Performed in 24 municipalities, the study analyzed the profile of the families benefiting from the ‘Mais Infância’ program, those registered with ‘CadÚnico’ and those benefiting from the ‘Bolsa Família’ program who had children aged 0 to 6. The second round of the study was completed in 2022, being comparable to that undertaken in 2021. Undertaken following the pandemic’s longest period of isolation, this new assessment brought in subsidies for the development of emergency measures providing support for families with young infants in the state.

São Paulo: Integrated Protocol Providing Attention for Very Early Childhood

Since 2019, the Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal has supported the São Paulo Municipal Government in the development of the Integrated Protocol Providing Attention for Very Early Childhood, with the program being implemented in 2020. Aligned with the Municipal Plan for Early Childhood and the Municipal Targets Plan, this initiative works on the construction of inter-sectoral government strategies - essential for guaranteeing comprehensive care for pregnant women, and children in Early Childhood and their families.

the initiative for other areas of the city. This stage was finalized in the second half of 2022, with more than 50% of the 432 municipal employees invited to participate in the course receiving certification as part of the first group of the protocol on the ‘ Escola Municipal de Administração Pública ’ (‘Municipal School of Public Administration’ / ‘Emasp’). Furthermore, newsletters on the protocol were distributed amongst municipal employees, reaching half of the departments and more than 80,000 individuals.

The protocol has been possible due to three tools designed to strengthen and integrate public services in different areas: Offer Integration Journey, Integration for Access, and two Alert Flows.

In 2021, a test pilot began involving the participation of three regions suffering high rates of vulnerability - Jardim Ângela, Brasilândia and Cidade Tiradentes – and the development of a plan to scale up

Led by the Government Department and the Technical Commission on Early Childhood, the protocol is now being implemented in 15 districts classified as ‘priority’ by the Municipal Targets Plan. The training offer is coordinated by Emasp, as are the communication actions directed at the entire network of municipal employees. Read more about the Integrated Protocol Providing Attention for Very Early Childhood and its tools here

São Paulo: Monitoring of the partner early childhood education centers

Target 1 of the National Education Plan (PNE/2014) envisages an expansion of the offer of daycare centers to meet at least 50% of the demand during the validity period of the Plan - that is, by 2024. One of the strategies adopted by the municipalities to achieve this target is the establishment of agreements with civil society organizations.

Within the context of São Paulo, the partner network is responsible for more than 85% of the access to Infant Education in the municipality. Due to the challenge of guaranteeing universal quality throughout the network, in 2022, the Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal and the municipal Education Department entered into a partnership aimed at improving the tools and processes used to monitor this partner network.