ELMER

Elmer is a neighbourhood service in social daycare in the Brussels district. Elmer has 4 sites in vulnerable areas of the region and has a daily capacity of almost 200 places. Elmer is available for children (3 months up to 3,5 years) for parents who live in the Brussels district. The priority goes to parents in vocational training, who suddenly find work or need emergency day care for social or medical raisons. Besides, we focus on working parents who live in the neighbourhood. Elmer also focuses on children who need special care and has a particular focus on urgent crisis situations. Elmer is flexible in providing child care: occasional, short-term, irregular, part-time, full-time or emergency day care, depending on the reason to come to the day care. Elmer has a very diverse setting, with co-workers from more than 20 origins all over the world, and a plurality of languages we can use in contact with the also very diverse group of families. The pedagogical policy aims to enable the wellbeing of each child, to offer rich opportunities to develop and to stimulate connectedness. Towards the parents our policy starts with the principle of the parent as first educator. We work on co-education between family and childcare. We facilitate social participation for parents and enable opportunities to meet between parents. Elmer is active in the neighbourhood and partner in different family centers. Elmer serves also as a practical experience for living together.