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History Of The Early Childhood Project
The Early Childhood Project was set up in 1988, when it grew out of Brighton’s very successful Development Education Group, Worldwise. For many years, Worldwise had worked effectively with adults and pupils in secondary schools, bringing issues affecting the developing world into local focus and consciousness and working co-operatively with UNICEF and Oxfam.
Some of us who worked locally with very young children realised that to eradicate prejudice and discrimination from their lives, we would need to work with both children and their adults. Meetings were held and plans made. It was during this time in May 1988 that the Rolfe family, regular Worldwise volunteers, Clare, Chris, children Tommy and Louise were killed by terrorists whilst they were working as trainers in Khartoum, Sudan.
The short-term outcome of this tragedy was the nationwide Rolfe Memorial Appeal amongst Friends, as both Clare and Chris were Quakers. The plans for an early years project gained momentum. The Rolfe Appeal funds bought the first collection of resources for young children to borrow from what became known as the Early Childhood Project Toy Library set up in their memory in September 1988. The Project was based in Clare’s Room at the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton until 1996.
The longer-term consequence was to make those of us volunteering with both Worldwise and the new group, The Early Childhood Project, determined to succeed and achieve Clare’s dream of creating a positive environment in which young children could thrive.
The work of the Project is still groundbreaking. There was and still is no other agency in the southeast offering the services we do. The Toy Library does not fit into any category with national agencies; we strive to fill the local gaps by offering resources for children and adults that no one else has. Good ‘door openers’ are books for children about death, being HIV positive and going to pre-school, adoption, being a traveler family, a refugee family, a stepfamily, a same sex family. We try hard to reflect all local community and family life and do truly celebrate diversity!
Dedication
The Early Childhood Project commemorates the lives and ideals of Clare and Chris Rolfe and their children, Tommy and Louise. The Early Childhood Project has risen from the work that Clare was instrumental in starting. Wherever it is based, the Toy library is dedicated as a resource for people working with young children to combat bias, as a practical memorial to the work Clare and her family were involved with.