Reggio Children is an international centre for the defence and promotion of children’s rights and potentials. It was created with the intention of valorising and safeguarding the experience of Reggio Emilia’s Municipal Infant-Toddler Centres and Preschools, known in Italy and throughout the world as the Reggio Emilia Approach®.

Sightlines Initiative develops and demonstrates reflective and creative practice in UK early childhood education through action research projects and professional development activity. We are the UK reference point for Reggio Children, Reggio Emilia, Italy, and are members of the Reggio Children International Network.

The North American Reggio Emilia Alliance exists to connect early childhood educators and advocates together in discovering, interpreting, and promoting Reggio Emilia inspired education. NAREA believes in the inherent abilities and basic rights of children and adults, particularly with regard to their competence and right to actively construct relations, knowledge, feelings, and identity. NAREA works to mobilize educators, parents and policymakers to play a collective role in moving the value of early childhood education to a position of priority. Through conferences, networking, and resource sharing, NAREA is advancing an inspiring and innovative movement that is giving more quality and excellence to education.

The Canadian Association for Young Children (CAYC) was granted its Federal Charter in 1974. To this day, the CAYC is the only national association specifically concerned with the well being of children, birth through age nine – at home, in preschool settings and at school. Members of this multi-disciplinary association include parents, teachers, caregivers, administrators, students and all those wishing to share ideas and participate in activities related to the education and welfare of young children.

The Calgary Reggio Network Association grew out of the Reggio Revisited Exhibition held by local teachers inspired by the Hundred Languages of Children Exhibit from Reggio Emilia, Italy. This exhibit was hosted in Calgary in 1997. At that time, an informal network of approximately 30 teachers was formed to engage in opportunities for dialogue and mutual support as they explored the Reggio philosophy. The network continued to grow and began offering professional development opportunities through network meetings and collaborating with other organizations to host summer institutes. When the Hundred Languages of Children Exhibit returned in 2006, it generated great interest within the Calgary community and across Western Canada. In 2007, the Calgary Reggio Network Association (CRNA) formalized its status as a non-profit society. The CRNA currently boasts a diverse membership of over 900 which includes educators, parents, child care providers, artists, social workers and other professionals.

The Ontario Reggio Association intends to provide a forum for all sectors involved with young children, from child care, preschool, public and private schools to postsecondary institutions, from teachers to administrators to legislators and policy makers.

Opal School began as a seed of an idea inspired because a group of educators from Portland attended a study tour of the municipal preprimary schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. The astonishing expression of ideas through the languages of the arts and wise and poetic words from these young Italian children provoked these educators, Caroline Wolfe and Judy Graves (Opal’s founder) among them, to wonder why we don’t see such sophisticated expression from American children. They wondered, “What are the implications of what we are seeing here for American public elementary schools?” While they were asking that question, the Oregon legislature passed SB 100, Oregon’s Charter School Act – and, at the same time, Portland Children’s Museum was moving to a new home. A kind of wondrous happenstance brought it all together and Opal School was born as a Portland Public School District charter school and program of the Museum.

Reggio Emilia Institutet in Sweden is driven by a strong pedagogical idea which is inspired by the municipal pre-schools in Reggio Emilia in Italy. Since it was established in 1993, the institute has been a meeting place for everybody in Sweden who wants to examine and work for the rights and opportunities of children and young people. Reggio Emilia Institutet tries to connect various competences and activities from the idea of a cooperative form of learning through collective experimentation. A form of learning that is always in movement on the basis of investigation and participation in dialogue, at the local and national level but also internationally.