Playgroups in Amsterdam
Playing is fun! The municipality of Amsterdam and the major welfare organisations organise a free-of-charge playgroups for parents and their child(ren) below 4 years of age in every city district. Parents can play with their child(ren), meet, and socialise with other parents, and they can ask advice on the development of their child(ren), parenting, and the preschool. The goal of the study is to learn more about parents’ experiences with the playgroup as well as the professionals’ experiences, their relations with parents, and the way they implement the programme. The child health clinics fulfill a role in informing and referring parents to the playgroups in order to increase the outreach and accessibility.
For the current study, four different city districts have been chosen to cover the variety across playgroups and the population of parents attending them. Field observations and interviews are conducted to gain more knowledge about how the playgroup programme works in these different locations and what the experiences are of the various stakeholders. The results will be reported to the municipality of Amsterdam and the welfare organisations but will also be shared with a wider audience of (local) policymakers and professionals.
Researchers
Reyhan Bencan - research assistant - r.bencan@uu.nl
Collaboration partners
Collaboration partners in this project are: the municipality of Amsterdam and welfare organisations : Dynamo, SEZO, Swazoom, SPIN.
Funding
This project is funded by the municipality of Amsterdam.