Promising Practice Profiles by topic - Programs
Developing child-friendly communities
- Organisation: St Vincent de Paul Society
- Key activity: Community development and education project in a public housing estate.
- Organisation: Brotherhood of St Laurence
- Key activity: The Breaking Cycles by Building Neighbourhood Hubs project aims to develop community hubs where children’s services work together to achieve better outcomes for young children and their families in Hume. The project targets families with young children (0–5 years old)—especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
- Organisation: Family Life
- Key activity: As part of a holistic response to families experiencing stress and are at risk of family breakdown, the “Keith Street” Community House incorporates a range of programs for parent support, volunteering and social connections. A critical centrepiece is developing informal networks and community connections to facilitate sustainable change for families and improved outcomes for children.
- Organisation: The Smith Family & NSW Refugee Health Service
- Key activity: Addresses nutrition and food security issues among refugee children and their families who have settled recently in Fairfield NSW.
- Organisation: Salvation Army, Ingle Farm, SA
- Key activity: Service Hub—Integrated service delivery through co-location and coordination of early childhood and family services.
- Organisation: Lower Mountains Family Support Service, Blaxland, NSW
- Key activity: A mentoring and training program to strengthen the capacity of children's service workers to respond to vulnerable children/families.
- Organisation: Mt Lockyer Primary School, WA
- Key activity: Community Hub - Closing literacy and numeracy gaps between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal children.
- Organisation: Partnership between Hackham West Community Centre (HWCC), Noarlunga Downs P-7 School and Hackham South School CPC-7
- Key activity: School-based approach to building community capacity, resilience and self-reliance
- Organisation: Communities for Children with Uniting Care Wesley Port Pirie as the Facilitating Partner Organisation
- Key activity: Supporting parent group activism.
- Organisation: Stride Foundation, Coonamble (North-West NSW)
- Key activity: Teaching life skills to disengaged young males through sports-based mentoring.
- Organisation: Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau Inc (SCAAB), Melbourne (VIC)
- Key activity: Provides capacity building, resilience and self-reliance opportunities for disadvantaged members though community volunteering.
Early childhood services
Education (kinder, childcare), including workforce development
- Organisation: Brotherhood of St Laurence
- Key activity: The Breaking Cycles by Building Neighbourhood Hubs project aims to develop community hubs where children’s services work together to achieve better outcomes for young children and their families in Hume. The project targets families with young children (0–5 years old)—especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
- Organisation: Melbourne Citymission
- Key activity: Child Care Info Connect is a parent education and support program which operates within child care centres.
- Organisation: Therapy Focus Inc
- Key activity: Development of oral language and literacy concepts for preschool children.
- Organisation: Upfield and Campbellfield Heights Primary Schools, Broadmeadows Communities for Children (Melbourne, Vic)
- Key activity: Oral language sessions.
- Organisation: KU Children's Services (formerly known as the Kindergarten Union of New South Wales), Sydney, NSW
- Key activity: Augmenting the knowledge and skills of early childhood staff to foster children's language and literacy development in low-income families.
- Organisation: Mt Lockyer Primary School, WA
- Key activity: Community Hub - Closing literacy and numeracy gaps between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal children.
- Organisation: Partnership between Hackham West Community Centre (HWCC), Noarlunga Downs P-7 School and Hackham South School CPC-7
- Key activity: School-based approach to building community capacity, resilience and self-reliance.
- Organisation: NSW Department of Education and Training
- Key activity: Transition to school program.
- Organisation: The Benevolent Society, NSW
- Key activity: Uses centre-based children's services to foster relationships between children and caregivers (parents and teachers), and to enhance children's social and emotional development; also provides support for isolated parents in this disadvantaged community.
- Organisation: Autism Queensland Inc.
- Key activity: Multi-disciplinary early childhood education and family support program provided as an early intervention strategy for preschool children with autism spectrum disorders and their family.
- Organisation: Ravenswood Early Learning Centre, Launceston (Tasmania)
- Key activity: A pre-school based early intervention program for hard-to-reach, educationally 'disenfranchised' families.
- Organisation: Access Macquarie and STaR Inclusive Early Childhood Association
- Key activity: The STaR program aims to increase the inclusion of children with a disability in childcare settings by collaborating with families, early intervention professionals, local councils, not-for-profit organisations, and university academics to build capacity and skills of centre-based childcare staff.
- Organisation: Kingston Bayside Primary Care Partnership
- Key activity: A health promotion strategy for young parents and youth at risk of early pregnancy, utilising a peer-education model expanding the scope of existing school-based, sexual health programs.
Health Services
- Organisation: Frankston Library Service (Melbourne, VIC)
- Key activity: Collaborative partnerships to engage 'hard to reach' families in early literacy activities. (i.e. Immunisation of chldn at the health clinic is used as a "stepping stone" to introduce families to reading and books).
- Organisation: Lower Mountains Family Support Service, Blaxland, NSW
- Key activity: A mentoring and training program to strengthen the capacity of children's service workers to respond to vulnerable children/families.
- Organisation: Mt Lockyer Primary School, WA
- Key activity: Community Hub - Closing literacy and numeracy gaps between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal children.
- Organisation: Key Centre for Women's Health in Society, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne
- Key activity: Early intervention with mothers and fathers soon after the birth of their first child to extend their knowledge and skills in managing infant needs and negotiating the new unpaid workload fairly, thereby alleviating potential mental health problems.
- Organisation: Lady Gowrie Child Centre - Adelaide, SA
- Key activity: A collaborative model of early intervention and prevention providing intensive psychosocial support, therapeutic intervention and childcare as a package for high risk families in order to improve secure attachment outcomes for young children.
Playgroups
- Organisation: Uniting Care Wesley Adelaide (facilitating partner), Centacare (community partner)
- Key activity: Little Engines Early Childhood Education professionals act as co-workers and mentors for staff from community agencies to increase their capacity to offer free supported playgroups for disadvantaged children 0-5 years. The playgroup model includes a community development focus that offers families access to a wide range of services through co-worker/co-facilitator partnerships with local social workers, health professionals and other support workers providing extensive support to families.
- Organisation: Centracare SA in partnership w Hackham West Community Centre, Christie Downs Community Centre, Morphett Vale Woodcroft Neighbourhood Centre
- Key activity: Support for existing playgroups.
- Organisation: SDN Children's Services Inc (formerly Sydney Day Nursery)
- Key activity: Provision of information, advice and support for parents with young children aged 0–8 in Sydney’s south-west who are accessing the SDN Family Resource Centre’s toy/resource library.
Interagency collaboration & multi-disciplinary approaches
- Organisation: Uniting Care Wesley, Port Adelaide (SA)
- Key activity: Around About is a specialised 8-week program for preschoolers (3 and 4-year olds) and their families concerned with the transition into childcare, kindergarten or school.
- Organisation: Brotherhood of St Laurence
- Key activity: The Breaking Cycles by Building Neighbourhood Hubs project aims to develop community hubs where children’s services work together to achieve better outcomes for young children and their families in Hume. The project targets families with young children (0–5 years old)—especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
- Organisation: Relationships Australia, New Town (Hobart), Tasmania
- Key activity: Building service/client relationships and improving service responsiveness to meet the relationships needs of African Tasmanian communities.
- Organisation: Autism Spectrum (Australia)
- Key activity: An early intervention program for children with autism and their families.
- Organisation: Centacare Wilcannia-Forbes (Facilitating partner for the Communities for Children - Dubbo, Narromine, Wellington initiative)
- Key activity: Coordination and development of early childhood service delivery responses to improve access and utilisation by the local community including Aboriginal children, children with additional needs (and their families).
- Organisation: Anglicare Victoria
- Key activity: Connected Families—Strong Communities aims to increase communityawareness that the children of families who work well with the school have better outcomes, and stay at school longer. It is based on partnerships between the school, families and community organisations to improve opportunities and outcomes for young people and their families.
- Organisation: Upper Hume Community Health Service
- Key activity: Multi-sector, collaborative, early intervention strategy for young parents in rural communities.
- Organisation: NT Christian Schools Association (in partnership with Anglicare NT's East Arnhem Communities for Children)
- Key activity: Early intervention/prevention program to strengthen family functioning and build protective factors in children.
- Organisation: St Joseph's Family Services, Port Macquarie (NSW)
- Key activity: A coordinated parent/carer support program to reduce isolation, strengthen and build parenting and relationship skills and support networks.
- Organisation: Salvation Army, Ingle Farm, SA
- Key activity: Service Hub—Integrated service delivery through co-location and coordination of early childhood and family services.
- Organisation: Australian Supported Parenting Consortium - Parenting Research Centre (lead agency) and the University of Sydney
- Key activity: Supports parents with learning difficulties.
- Organisation: Frankston Library Service (Melbourne, VIC)
- Key activity: Collaborative partnerships to engage 'hard to reach' families in early literacy activities. (i.e. Immunisation of chldn at the health clinic is used as a "stepping stone" to introduce families to reading and books).
- Organisation: Lower Mountains Family Support Service, Blaxland, NSW
- Key activity: A mentoring and training program to strengthen the capacity of children's service workers to respond to vulnerable children/families.
- Organisation: Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation (Melbourne, VIC)
- Key activity: Library outreach to kindergartens, playgroups and child care centres.
- Organisation: Uniting Care Wesley Adelaide (facilitating partner), Centacare (community partner)
- Key activity: Little Engines Early Childhood Education professionals act as co-workers and mentors for staff from community agencies to increase their capacity to offer free supported playgroups for disadvantaged children 0-5 years. The playgroup model includes a community development focus that offers families access to a wide range of services through co-worker/co-facilitator partnerships with local social workers, health professionals and other support workers providing extensive support to families.
- Organisation: SDN Children's Services (formerly Sydney Day Nursery)
- Key activity: Parenting support for socio-economically marginalised and at risk families.
- Organisation: Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC) Parramatta (Sydney), NSW
- Key activity: Early learning and care for families with children who have hearing and/or vision loss and require specialist early intervention.
- Organisation: Kurrajong Early Intervention Service
- Key activity: Hub and spoke model of service delivery to rural communities.
- Organisation: Kurrajong Early Intervention Service
- Key activity: The team provides individually tailored early intervention services, including early education, therapy, counselling and parent training to families who have babies and children with disabilities and developmental delays.
- Organisation: SDN Children's Services Inc (formerly Sydney Day Nursery)
- Key activity: Provision of information, advice and support for parents with young children aged 0–8 in Sydney’s south-west who are accessing the SDN Family Resource Centre’s toy/resource library.
- Organisation: Playgroup Association of Queensland
- Key activity: A music therapy early intervention strategy for parents of young children.
- Organisation: Access Macquarie and STaR Inclusive Early Childhood Association
- Key activity: The STaR program aims to increase the inclusion of children with a disability in childcare settings by collaborating with families, early intervention professionals, local councils, not-for-profit organisations, and university academics to build capacity and skills of centre-based childcare staff.
- Organisation: Centacare Wilcannia Forbes, NSW
- Key activity: Supports young, teenage mothers to increase their skills and confidence in parenting, as well as to re-engage with education and community services relevant to their needs.
- Organisation: St Vincent de Paul Society (In partnership with Victorian Cooperative on Children’s Services in Ethnic Groups, Uniting Care Sunshine Mission, and Adult Multicultural Education Services)
- Key activity: Sunshine Learning Together is a dual generation learning program for parents who want to learn English and who have preschool age children. There are three components to the program: culturally appropriate early learning and activities for 0–5s; simultaneous English language tuition for the mothers; a follow-on parent–child program attended by both the mother and her children.
- Organisation: Lady Gowrie Child Centre - Adelaide, SA
- Key activity: A collaborative model of early intervention and prevention providing intensive psychosocial support, therapeutic intervention and childcare as a package for high risk families in order to improve secure attachment outcomes for young children.
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