Support for Building More Inclusive Environments for Children and Young People

Kavli Trust has granted Gleding 3 million Norwegian kroner to further develop a digital platform designed to enhance the skills of adults around children and young people, and to contribute to a national framework for better upbringing environments.

The social enterprise Gleding has developed the digital tools Gleding Education and Gleding Parent, aiming to reduce school absenteeism and social exclusion among children and young people.

A Resource for Schools and Families

The platform combines a digital resource library for staff in nurseries and schools with a parent app containing everyday tools to help parents and children build strong relationships. It also includes materials that support the vital cooperation between school and home.

The teaching materials are tailored for the various year groups in primary and secondary schools and are specifically designed to strengthen children’s social and emotional skills.

“Our goal is to make it easier for both parents and nursery and school staff to create good, inclusive environments around children. Support from Kavli Trust means we can further develop solutions that truly meet these needs and reach even more people, including in multiple languages,” says Siri Abrahamsen, founder and CEO of Gleding.

She got the idea for Gleding after a conversation with her children about bullying in 2015.

Global Ambitions

What started as the children’s book Gleding with Lykke and Wilmer (2016) has over the past decade grown into a kind of movement for inclusion and doing good for one another.

“We dream of Gleding becoming a global tool for creating good lives from the start. When children and adults get help to build secure relationships, we lay the foundation for community and mental health throughout life,” she explains.

Abrahamsen believes we currently lack tools to strengthen human relationships and that digital solutions open new possibilities.

“With Gleding, we want to use digital technology to make it easier to be kind to each other—whether in the school playground, at parents’ evenings, or on the sidelines of a football match.”

The support from Kavli Trust aligns with the foundation’s efforts to strengthen children’s and young people’s mental health by combating social exclusion.

The funds will be used to further develop the platform’s content and features based on user feedback and to translate and adapt the content for minority language groups to increase inclusion.

The funding also ensures the platform will be introduced in collaboration with 30 new nurseries and schools and three local authorities.

Building the Whole Team Around Children

Ingrid Paasche, Managing Director of Kavli Trust, is impressed by Gleding’s holistic approach to promoting mental health, well-being, and community.

“By engaging the entire local community—from children and parents to nursery staff and school teachers—and building competence across the whole team around the children, Gleding not only strengthens the upbringing environments but also the children themselves,” she says.

“Kavli Trust is proud to support Gleding’s digital platform, and we look forward to following its development and collaborations with even more local authorities, nurseries, and schools,” Paasche adds.

Facts about Gleding

• Gleding United AS is a non-profit organisation working to create a warmer society, with a special focus on inclusive upbringing environments for children and young people.
• Through Gleding Nursery and Gleding School, courses, books, podcasts, and more, Gleding engages families, schools, nurseries, and sports clubs to build better relationships and fight social exclusion.
• Gleding was founded by Siri Abrahamsen in 2016. The founder describes the initiative as: “Gleding is about what we actually do to feel better. It’s about language, action, and community. About giving children, parents, and school and nursery staff concrete tools and simple ideas for building good relationships—and how small, kind actions can make a big difference.”
• In 2021, Q-Meieriene, owned by Kavli Trust, promoted Gleding’s work on over 4 million milk cartons.
• Gleding has been listed as a top 100 innovation in early education for two years running in Helsinki, by the global education organisation Hundred.org.
• The digital platforms Gleding Education and Gleding Parent have been developed with support from, among others, Kavli Trust.
• The ambition is to strengthen children’s social and emotional skills, increase parents’ confidence and competence, and provide professionals in the upbringing sector with tools to create inclusive and supportive environments.