ProW Final Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece

Reaching the end of the ProW project implementation, the consortium hosted a final conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, on the 3rd of February. The event was open to everyone wishing to attend and the audience was filled with Early Childhood Education and Care professionals and researchers. The event included an opening communication, presented by the keynote speaker Professor Yvonne Anders (Bamberg University, Germany), with some outcomes of recent research and insightful reflections on the “Professional development for high quality preschool education”. This presentation was followed by a general overview about the PERMA model, hosted by Dr. Vicky Charalambous (Institute of the Development, Cyprus), and about the scalability plan for the ProW practices and results, presented by Professor Vrasidas Charalambos (University of Nicosia, Cyprus). After a short social break, Professor George Manolitsis (University of Crete, Greece) presented the main results of the ProW intervention in the four participating countries – Greece, Cyprus, Romania, and Portugal. The final moment of the conference included the presence of researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in the field of ECEC discussing the challenges and potentials of research informed policy changes. These discussions and reflections were a great way to conclude the implementation of the ProW project, to celebrate its achievements, and to define shared goals for the future of well-being in Early Childhood Education and Care contexts.