The Alliance for Childhood

European Network Group

The Alliance for Childhood European Network Group (AFC-ENG) is the community of people working for Improving the Quality of Childhood in Europe

The Alliance for Childhood European Network Group (AFC-ENG) was set up in 2006 by Michiel Matthes and Christopher Clouder, and it held its first meeting in Brussels in that same year. It has partners (organizations and individuals) from over 15 European countries. (See the list of the partners here.)

The AFC-ENG welcomes new partners, whether organizations or individuals

Our Vision

European societies placing the quality of childhood in the centre of all their activities and thoroughly assessing the effects of their decisions on children.

Essence of Childhood

Our Mission

To increase the respect for childhood as a basis for human development and to create awareness of the needs of all children.

To develop and inspire ideas for solutions to those problems which could endanger the good quality of childhood.

To provide a platform for contacts, inspiration, exchange, peer learning, encouragement and dialogue among policy makers, decision makers, researchers, practitioners, parents and all people that have an influence on children’s lives.

Impact

The impact of the Alliance for Childhood European Network Group on European Societies is channeled in many ways.

The AFC-ENG provides a space for reflection about the way that children are brought up in our societies, about the habits and practices that diminish the Quality of Childhood, and about ways in which it could be improved.

In this domain a large group of experts and pioneers - from many European countries and beyond have been brought together, and a vast body of knowledge has been gathered and made available to policy makers, practitioners, politicians and the public at large.

These activities have also had an impact on the partners of the AFC-ENG, and through them on the societies of which they are a part and countries in which they are based.

The work of the AFC-ENG has been recognized by invitations to serve as an NGO partner in many EU-funded research projects and in the Working Group on Early Childhood of the European Commission.

The Board

The AFC-ENG is supported by the Alliance for Childhood European Network Foundation. On its board sit the following persons:

Christopher Clouder, co-founder and chairman of the Alliance for Childhood European Network Group
Daniel Kropf - the Learning for Well-being Foundation (L4WB-F)

Georg Jürgens - the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education (ECSWE)

Janni Nicol - the International Association for Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education (IASWECE)