INTESYS shows we are stronger together when striving toward goals.

‘INTESYS certainly opened new dimensions of cooperation,’ says Majda Fajdiga, principal of the Preschool Kekec Grosuplje. These are telling words from an administrator who has worked in other efforts to facilitate cooperation between early years services. You may be wondering: What kind of cooperation is inspired by the INTESYS project? Or, why cooperation among early childhood services important? The INTESYS consortium wants to help you understand.

What is INTESYS?
The INTESYS project is all about integrated services in the early years. This means cooperation between services in different sectors; it means those with different professional languages learning to work together to place the child at the center of their work. And, guess what? It works!

INTESYS began because we know that well-implemented integrated systems help professionals meet the needs of children and their families. That is why the INTESYS consortium is developing a toolkit full of approaches to help practitioners, managers and policymakers accomplish more through integrated work. To do this, the consortium works with 5 pilots in 4 countries.

What do the pilots have to say?
Recently, we asked representatives of each of these pilots to share their thoughts on how well the project facilitated cooperation between different early years services. Below is what the representative of the Slovenian pilot, a preschool principal, had to say: ‘Participation in the INTESYS project was not the first opportunity for interinstitutional cooperation for us, but it certainly opened new dimensions of cooperation mainly due to the project's orientation and continuity. I think that every single act cannot be fruitful and leave long-lasting traces, but if repeated, there is a greater possibility for success.

We also have more opportunities to grow, to develop our thoughts from meeting to meeting and to link them with the experiences and ideas of other participants. In our case, this proved to be positive and effective. We came to know each other better and connect with each other, which opened the way for new tasks and also contributed to solving current problems. Together we are stronger and more efficient in finding ways to the common goal.’

Already integrating services?
As we are finding in our pilots, there is always room to learn more! Would you like to find out more about Integrated Services or the INTESYS project? Visit the INTESYS project website and find the draft toolkit here.