Interview with Shoshana Chovan about Places to Grow advocacy and research project with Cesta Von
As part of its Joint Action Fund*, Places to Grow (P2G)** is excited to share a project within its portfolio that it is working on with Cesta Von***, called “Towards Improved Quality Of Omama and The Subsequent ECD Social Service,” based in Slovakia. This project is dedicated to assessing and promoting its programming as a systemic approach to early childcare through research and advocacy.
To provide a comprehensive understanding of this project, we interviewed Shoshana Chovan, one of the project managers. Shoshana is a psychologist and researcher who focuses on early childhood development in marginalised Roma communities and works as a Policy Officer at Cesta Von.
Below, we have included a condensed version of the conversation with Shoshana. Please note that some texts have been abbreviated or adjusted with Shoshana’s permission.
First, can you describe Cesta Von’s Omama program for us?
The Omama program is Cesta Von’s flagship initiative. We offer evidence-based intensive training, mentoring, and support services to Omamas, women from marginalised Roma communities. These women then provide early childhood education and care programs for families in their communities. As an in-house program, Omamas support families directly in their natural settings. A caregiver is always present because the idea is to support the child and show how these practices can continue throughout the rest of the week.
Omamas educate caregivers on stimulating child development. They read books, talk with the child, and demonstrate to parents how to help their child’s development. For instance, they might teach families how to be creative in making simple toys or games at home using readily available materials, such as matching socks or objects, or using pans or cups as stacking toys.
What is the goal of the Joint Action Fund project?
There are two primary goals for this work: research and advocacy. The research involves a comprehensive evaluation of the current program, while the advocacy aims to establish this program as an official social service.
The extensive program evaluation will identify ECD’s impact, benefits, and areas for improvement. The research has focused on ECD’s impact on parental competencies, barriers to access and acceptability, and the biggest contributors to impact.
For the last six years, Cesta Von has been working to make this a high-quality program, and now several smaller-scale interventions or programs are focusing on the same thing.
We want to provide recommendations for the design of a state-supported early childhood education and care (ECEC) social service. We want the government to take ownership and provide funding.
To do this, a legislative change is necessary. Otherwise, project funding is very limiting as it is often unsustainable, and short-term funds from grants or the European Union. This makes it difficult to create long-term interventions. The work with the JAF is focused on advocacy, co-creating, and legally establishing this social service. This will involve adding a definition of this service into the law that clearly states the quality and how the funding should be managed effectively and responsibly.
Are you collaborating with other organisations?
Yes, we are collaborating with Socia Foundation and Schola Empirica, which are P2G partners.
Socia Foundation has previous experience establishing a social service. This is incredibly valuable to our process even though their experience is a bit different as it regarded establishing a social service for children with health disabilities. The Omama program is focused on children at risk based on their socioeconomic disadvantages and generational poverty. It is very helpful for us because they are already very experienced in this field and have a very good network to help us create this definition for the law.
We want to ensure that the definition is robust enough and translates to the government what we have learned in the last six years. Last year, we decided to work with an outside agency to evaluate our program. We chose to work with Schola Empirica, one of the P2G partners. They are helping us by collecting data and analysing what works and what doesn’t. It is good timing, as we can translate our findings into legislative change.
The added value is really the collaboration between the P2G partners. It has been going great for both of us; this was a great learning opportunity.
You shared that you’ve finished data collection. What was that process like for you? Are there any particular reflections or takeaways?
Schola Empirica conducted expert interviews with the program management, focus groups with Omamas, their mentors and supervisors, questionnaires with parents, interviews with primary and pre-schools, and also used the pediatric screening data from our app. It was quite the Marathon, but we were very successful. I’m very happy with how it went. We learned that the availability and quality of data in Slovakia is still very lacking or limited. For example, there are screenings of psychomotor development. Still, within the database, the children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are not explicitly marked, and no data was collected on where the children are from. So it’s really hard to make comparisons. This data would be very useful but is not yet available in Slovakia. We as a society must also reflect on this if we want to create evidence-based policies or programs.
But from what we’ve learned, we’ve seen many families interviewed about their values and experience with the Omama program, and they have had very good experiences. They really feel like the Omama is a very important person in their family life. They treat them with a lot of respect, and because it’s somebody from their own community, they can relate to them better than they would to a formal educator.
We also learned that teachers in Slovakia are not very trusting when it comes to being interviewed or asked questions. They did not want to share because they felt that it was strange that somebody wanted to ask them questions. This is something to reflect on in order to make it a safer space for sharing.
The data is still with Schola Empirca, and they are currently analysing it. We are looking forward to sharing the results at the conference in November!
Could you share any stories from data collection?
There have been many heartwarming stories from the data collection. For example, parents who were not even supposed to be interviewed were very persistent about talking to our administrators because they wanted to share how much their child has learned thanks to Omama.
One funny story was when we came to interview one family, and they were watching the same reality show TV show that the data collectors and the administrators were watching. We also had a very open moment of sharing about who we were rooting for and who we thought would leave the show. There was also one Romani participant on the show, so we talked about how she was represented and what it meant for them — just having this heart-to-heart moment then facilitated an open and in-depth conversation on some of their challenges. For example, in elementary schools, some of the difficulties they had with teachers, so it was really nice to see that those people were willing to be very transparent with their struggles just by connecting a little bit.
What is something surprising but integral to this work that you think is important for someone who doesn’t know much about it to learn?
We mainly discuss the effects of these kinds of programs on children, but we rarely discuss the effect on the Omamas. For some of them, this is their first work experience. They collaborate much more or work much more with people from the majority population, which can also be very challenging for many of them. It requires a lot of input and effort.
This is also very rewarding to me: seeing them as very proud of their work, how respected they become in their communities, and the children’s progress. They see the progress. They are very excited about their learning development. They will tell you, “Oh, this child! They didn’t really talk much or were a little bit delayed in their speech, and now look at them. They’re doing so great,” or “I’m really excited about seeing how this child is doing great in school.” I love seeing how they appreciate the mothers for putting in a lot of effort.
The Omamas are very proud of the mothers and talk of them with much love, appreciation, and care. This, for me, is an amazing effect, and it’s great to witness women for whom this could be their first employment having this much pride in their work.
You can see the entire community really being transformed. Because then, other women might be inspired to think: “If this woman now has a role in which she can be respected and appreciated, maybe I could have that for myself. I could maybe also have a job where I could educate myself, learn and grow, and become respected in my community and by my community.” It’s just wonderful to see how it all works together and all the benefits it brings on multiple levels.
Any final thoughts?
Well, the Omama program has been quite a trailblazer in early childhood education and care in Slovakia. It’s been the longest-running, largest-scale intervention, and we want to share what we’ve learned and how we’ve been able to translate it nationally. Now, we really want to translate it to a policy level. So come to the conference to listen to how well we’ve done because we don’t know ourselves yet!
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Cesta Von is in the process of conducting this project and will present their findings at the P2G conference in Prague in November 2024. If you are interested in what we do or want to join Places to Grow, please contact info@placestogrow.eu and consider registering for our P2G Conference in Prague on November 14th, where we will also present this project.
*In 2024, Places to Grow launched the Joint Action Fund. This grant scheme fosters innovation, learning, and cross-sectoral collaboration aiming for systemic change in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. This flagship initiative is designed to strengthen collaboration among Places to Grow partners and other relevant stakeholders, therefore contributing to creating a robust and evolving ECD ecosystem. It consists of financial and non-financial support and incorporates knowledge-sharing with the community of practice.
**Places to Grow, a catalyst for excellence in early childhood development (ECD), education, and care in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, strengthens relationships between organisations active in social services, education, advocacy, and research.
***Cesta Von is an association whose mission is to help people stuck in poverty stand on their own feet, get a job, and have a dignified life through programs dedicated to children at an early age, young people, and adults. These programs develop the potential, knowledge, skills, and attitudes of socially dependent people from early childhood to old age to improve their personal, social, spiritual, and material resources.
