International Step by Step Association

International Step by Step Association

ISSA's Profile

Vision

A society where families, communities and professionals work together to empower each child to reach her or his full potential and embrace values of social justice and equity.

Mission

ISSA's mission is to support professional communities and develop a strong civil society that influences and assists decision makers to:

• provide high quality care and educational services for all children from birth through primary school (birth through 10 years old), with a focus on the poorest and most disadvantaged
• ensure greater inclusion of family and community participation in children's development and learning
• ensure social inclusion and respect for diversity.

ISSA's overarching goal is to promote inclusive, quality care and education experiences that create the conditions for every child to be happy and reach his or her full potential. ISSA does this through: raising awareness of the imp ortance of quality care and education; developing resources; piloting/evaluating programs, influencing policies, building capacity of organizations in the network, disseminating information; advocating; and strengthening alliances.

International Step by Step Association (2013) Retrieved from: http://www.issa.nl/issasprofile.html

This organization caught my attention because of its international visibility with members in 31 countries.  They have a vast amount of research based resources offered on their website including courses for preschool and kindergarten teachers on child centered practices, a resource packet on quality pedagogy, and a joint publication on diversity and social inclusion.  They also have an extensive collection of children's books written by authors around the world and available in many languages.  

I see their focus on quality early experiences for all children world wide so they can be happy and reach his or her full potential as something I would like to be a part of.