EDeNn Conference 2010

EDeNn hosted its first conference in the Aisling hotel in February 2010 ‘We Make the Road by Walking’. One hundred and sixty delegates were brought on a journey beginning with setting the context at European and National levels in relation to diversity and equality. This was followed by Trainers and Practitioner’s describing their experiences of engaging with Diversity and Equality at training and practice levels. Key note speaker Dalvir Gill Newman UC: Birmingham and DECET highlighted the relevance and importance of The Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in diversity and anti-discriminatory work reminding us that ‘As individuals we cannot make the world free of prejudice and discrimination and a safe place to be, but we can do our very best to ensure that our early years settings are small models of what we would like the world to be.’ (Dalvir Gill 2011). Kathleen Collins launched ‘Your Child’s Journey’ a DVD addressing Traveller parents in choosing childcare provision in integrated settings and practitioners is their provision of a welcoming environment for Traveller children. Delegates then participated in a number of workshops addressing Diversity and Equality in practice including a focus on Aistear, the Family Wall, and Cascading Approaches to implementing diversity and equality work and Imagery and Representation in Irish society and the ECCE environment. The presentations and papers from the conference are available at: http://pavee.ie/edenn/resources/edenn-conference-2010-we-make-the-road-by-walking