Earlyarts announces national Pathfinders

Earlyarts has selected twenty two Pathfinder Partners, across twelve hubs, to roll out its highly acclaimed Professional Development Days across the country. Earlyarts' Pathfinder Programme is an innovative approach to build a sustainable social enterprise that enables a national 'joining up' of practice to meet the needs of young children and families. Google map showing full Earlyarts Pathfinder Coverage

Pathfinder Partners were chosen for their excellent track record in training and creative development of the arts, cultural and early years workforce. Pathfinders will be delivering Earlyarts' highly popular Professional Development Days across all regions, ensuring that every professional that works with children and families will be able to access creative training in their area.

The social enterprise model enables partners to share in the collected knowledge of what makes a difference to children's lives, at the same time as building a strong network of ‘champions' for creative learning who will be better skilled to improve practice on the ground for many years to come.

Earlyarts is the country's flagship professional development network and has received huge acclaim from its growing membership for the quality and accessibility of its resources. Earlyarts Director, Ruth Churchill Dower, recently won the Ogunte Women's Social Leadership Awards 2009 for encouraging extraordinary vision and social impact through Earlyarts. Commenting on the national roll out programme, Ruth said,

‘If we are going to make a big difference to way we support families, the key for the future is to share our wisdom and our resources so that we can strengthen what our own organisations have to offer, rather than continuing to struggle within the current funding challenges. There is so much experience, commitment and insight in the workforce, but much of it still quite isolated. We think Earlyarts is an ideal platform to enable resources and skills to be utilised to much greater effect and we welcome the new Partners on board to help us make this a reality.'

Earlyarts started in 2002 in response to research showing the isolated nature of many creative early years projects and the lack of longer term support for this work. Earlyarts provides key services to drive up standards in creative practice with young children and families, from information sharing and online resources to connecting providers through inspiring professional development programmes.

Geographic Spread of Pathfinder Partners

South West - 2 hubs

• North: 5x5x5=creativity, enquiry and research based creative approaches, largely influenced by Reggio Emilia approaches, in Bath, Bristol and north east Somerset.Take Art, developing arts learning programmes in Somerset, particularly focussing on early years through their Take Art: Start Training Programme and their forthcoming Thrive programme, DepARTure, committed to early years arts practice and leading training programmes for early years practitioners and artists. Folk South West, a regional folk development agency for Somerset, Dorset and East Devon, working to stimulate enjoyment, participation and creativity in the South West.

• South: Music and Dance Education (MADE), operating an information sharing network plus annual conference for early years arts providers across the South West, as well as leading on the ArtStart strategy, bringing together regional arts and early years providers towards more holistic delivery. DAISI, runs an Art to Start project in early years settings and early years training for the sector.

South East - 1 hub

• West Sussex County Council Arts Development network, a growing network of early years settings engaging in creative practices and partnerships, strong track record in CPD events.

London - 1 hub

• Half Moon Theatre, produces and presents early years theatre, and runs an extensive participatory programme to complement and enrich family learning in the broadest sense.

East Midlands - 1 hub

• soundLINCS, Lincolnshire's Music Development Agency dedicated to music for babies, children and families, fulfilling the Early Years Foundation Stage and Every Child Matters strategy, plus runs high quality training professional development for music providers

West Midlands - 1 hub

• Birmingham Repertory Theatre,Early Years has become a key part of their learning and participation activity and produced some of their most exciting and original work. The partnership with Birmingham's Family Learning Service has created opportunities to develop new relationships with settings across the city, which they now want to consolidate in a network.

North East - 1 hub

• BareToed Dance, specialising in movement play and dance with early years children and families through training, regular classes, workshops and performances. Jack Drum Arts, one of County Durham's most successful social enterprises. Jack Drum delivers a wide range of high quality creative arts programmes across the region, frequently winning awards for its innovative work, with a focus on arts and early years.

North West - 4 hubs

• Cumbria and Lancashire: Creative Futures Cumbria, works with creative professionals, including artists, scientists, architects, chefs and web designers, promoting the capacity of the creative and cultural sectors to work within education and across the community to put creativity at the heart of learning. Appletree Children's Centre, new centre with creative practice and professional development at its heart and already engaged in many family oriented arts initiatives across the region.

• Manchester, Salford, Trafford: Manchester Childrens Services and MUSE - Manchester's Network for Creative Learning in the Early Years, including thirty settings who are Earlyarts members providing services in Manchester for children, young people, families and the practitioners supporting them. This hub will run in partnership with the Royal Exchange Theatre - Exchange Education, PLACES, and the North West Museums Hub, leading the creation of outstanding, innovative and inclusive family learning programmes in partnership with creative practitioners in the northwest.

• Cheshire and surrounding areas: Cheshire West and Cheshire Council, passionate advocates for the arts and for working creatively across the whole curriculum, bringing together many key initiatives such as Sing Up, Rural Touring Forum, Arts Learning Consortium. Runs creative CPD for early years practitioners across county and beyond.

• Greater Manchester including Tameside, Oldham, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale: Arts Learning Consortium / CAPE UK, a creative learning agency running the ALC as its flagship network for local authorities and higher education professionals engaged in arts education.

Yorkshire - 1 hub

• Leeds Find Your Talent Early Years Hub, bringing together a cluster of primary schools and early years settings with FYT artists and arts organisations for tailored professional development