MONITORING AND EVALUATION

WWO is developing a system for monitoring and evaluating of program activities and their impact on communities and partner organizations. The Foundation works with partners in places where access to play and toys for young children is difficult – in ethnic communities, in small towns without other early childhood education services, in social services, residential services, hospitals, educational services and kindergartens. Program activities for children include approaches based on play, music and reading, which include parents. Their application in small settlements, where there are no other services for children in early childhood and marginalized communities has the following specific objectives:

To train specialists and maintain a professional network of workers in support of early childhood development;
To provide opportunities for children and parents to play and learn through play by providing resources and materials and / or supporting the creation of an appropriate physical environment and conditions for this;
To provide an opportunity for conducting organized activities led by a specially trained person in order to promote child development and develop a positive relationship between children and parents;

To raise the awareness of parents and the local population about the importance of early childhood;
To support the communities in their reconstruction and development, incl. by supporting local authorities in conducting local policies for children and families and building or designing playgrounds;
To encourage early learning in Bulgarian of children whose families speak mainly another language and to increase their readiness to enter preschool and school environments

The impact of monitoring aims to provide evidence of the need and usefulness of the program activities which is used for various purposes – research, incl. with scientific purpose, statistics, content level upgrade and development of good practices, upgrading of program activities in a specific region, multiplication of the program as a model to support early childhood development, fundraising, etc. Therefor we monitor the beneficiaries and monitor the results.

Description of monitoring tools: 1. Early Childhood Development Services Assessment Tool for Boys and Girls: OGRDV play hubs (ECD QUAT) International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI).
ECD-QUAT is a tool for measuring the quality of services for children. The basic idea is that through involving stakeholders such as parents, practitioners and health professionals in the community, a functional evaluation of the service can be made. ECD-QUAT provides an opportunity for open discussion and service improvement by taking young children seriously, encourage staff to reflect on their work, overcome differences by discussing them together and using the expertise, opinions and insights of different stakeholders. In other words: ECD-QUAT is a method to stimulate participatory action!

DP3 Child Development Assessment Rating Scale – Child Development Screening Monitoring child development through screening tools, as well as other appropriate ones, is a professional approach that helps in the early and timely identification of delays or difficulties in child development. After the assessment, the guidance is provided to teams or professionals to work with the specific child and family, which also includes work through the programs from “Early Childhood” component.
The Early Human Capability Index (eHCI) – “Early Human Ability Index” (eHCI) or “Child Ability Index” is a holistic measure designed to cover early childhood development in different cultures and contexts. EHCI was developed by Assoc. Prof. Brinkman in order to cover the key aspects of child development to 3-5 years old children, which predict future opportunities. EHCI is easy-to-use research tool that can be filled by parents / caregivers, child care workers, teachers, health workers, mediators, and other early childhood development professionals.

WWO translated the tool into Bulgarian and has been using it since 2019 to track the results of project activities.

Feedback from trainings and events

Survey of the degree of satisfaction from the training – content of the topics, way of presentation and applicability in the work; research of the difficulties and the needs for additional trainings on specific topics; recommendations and the opportunity to share and comment on something else.

Information map with quantitative indicators from partner organizations – twice a year

It contains quantitative indicators of children and parents who participated in the programs activities, as well as the application of the individual programs of the component “Early Childhood”, a study of the stories of children and families.