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Invest to Grow initiative – working at the grass roots

Early childhood programs are an important part of the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy. One of the initiatives under the Strategy, Invest to Grow, aims to improve outcomes for young children through prevention and early intervention and to build the Australian evidence base about what works in prevention and early intervention from birth to school entry. Invest to Grow projects are funded across Australia.

Total funding provided by the Australian Government for the whole Strategy is $490 million over five years. The Strategy was announced by the Prime Minister in April 2004 with a focus on early childhood, following consultation resulting from the National Agenda for Early Childhood. The May 2005 issue of Local Government Focus gave an overview of all four initiatives under the Strategy.

Invest to Grow funds a range of successful established programmes as well as a number of developing early childhood programmes. Organisations have been carefully selected to foster innovation and build the evidence base around what works. Each project addresses a specific target group and identified need. Funding will enable programmes to be further developed and evaluated to assess their effectiveness in achieving outcomes for young children, their families and communities. The funding will expand established early intervention and prevention programs and refine and/or further develop promising early intervention programs to a point where they can be more broadly applied through the development of a comprehensive project model.

The initiative also funds the development of tools and resource materials for use by families, professionals and communities supporting families and young children. These tools include a quality assured Parenting Information Website that will be operational from March 2006 that can be found at www.raisingchildren.net.au

Funded projects

The Invest to Grow initiative funds a large range of projects. Some examples are featured below while a full list can be found on the Strategy website: www.facs.gov.au/internet/facsinternet.nsf/aboutfacs/programs/sfsc-early_childhood_invest_to_grow.htm

Core of Life

Core of Life is a unique life-education program addressing adolescents’ emerging attitudes to Pregnancy, Birth, Infant Feeding and Early Parenting. Core of Life uses Australian evidence to support its content, recognising the impact of the antenatal period and early childhood on the healthy development and wellbeing of individuals. Core of Life utilises multi-media technology and realistic role play to engage youth in a ‘hands on’ approach to learning, seeking to give practical information, promote positive attitudes and indicate where in the local community, assistance is available.

Core of Life aims to empower all young people with information and skills to improve the outcomes for our young and future families to enable them to support children in the best possible start to life.

CONTACT: Ms Tracy Smith or Ms Debby Pattrick on (03) 9784 8233.

The Royal Institute of Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC)

The RIDBC Remote Early Learning Program will assist children from 0 to 5 years who live in rural and regional areas and have a sensory impairment.

The RIDBC Remote Early Learning Program has been operating in rural and regional NSW for the past three years. The new project sees an expansion of this service to all states and territories. The initial roll out over the next twelve months will include South Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. The expansion of the program will not only serve the targeted group of children with a disability but will also act as an exemplary model of distance service delivery in early intervention.

In addition to regional and centre-based visits, the RIDBC Remote Early Learning consultants used a range of technologies including video conferencing, video recording, email, audio recording and digital photography. These technologies are combined to deliver flexible services to families and locally based generic service providers.

CONTACT: Mrs Jan North (02) 9872 0311 or 1300 131 923 (local call from anywhere in Australia).

Children’s Protection Society “I’m A Dad” Program

The “I’m a Dad” Program’s early intervention approach builds on the strengths of fathers and inspires, supports and motivates men to become better fathers and partners. The program provides a unique opportunity to engage men at a critical life stage characterised by a high level of motivation to contribute to the birth and development of their first child. Its uniqueness lies in it ‘going to where men are at’ and providing visual, tangible and useful tools for new fathers to use.

The program has five major delivery components, including antenatal classes specifically designed to be more inclusive of fathers-to-be, the “I’m a Dad” Bag delivered in the hospital to all first-time fathers, newsletters, support groups, and counselling support. It is anticipated that services will be provided to 600 new fathers in Melbourne each year.

CONTACT: Peter Llewellyn-Smith Senior Manager - Children’s Protection Society (03) 9495 7900.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

The Platforms Strategy focuses on improving the coordination of services at a community level to encourage more of a prevention and early intervention approach. The strategy aims to improve access to services and change professional practice to better support families. It will also help identify and intervene early in child and family issues.

The Platforms Strategy has several key components - preparing the community, developing mechanisms for early detection of problems, developing strategies based on evidence of what works and developing tools for services to monitor their performance.

A community toolkit will help communities to address service delivery issues in their local area, while a method of identifying problems faced by young children and their families is being further developed. The final Platforms Strategy package will be tested in diverse communities throughout Victoria.

CONTACT: Ms June McLoughlin, Director, Early Childhood Unit, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (03) 9345 6150.

Rural Beginnings

Rural Beginnings is an innovative early intervention service delivery for families who have a child with a disability or delay in their development. It operates with a transdisciplinary team of professionals in the fields of health and education with a focus on therapy, behaviour management, and early special education. The project enables families who have a child with a disability or delay in their development to obtain vital early intervention services in their local community. It includes provision of a behavioural psychology service for those families who have children with challenging behaviour as well as a range of parent training opportunities.

The service delivery areas for this project are the nine Local Government Areas in the New South Wales Riverina Region of Tumut, Tumbarumba, Gundagai, Cootamundra, Junee, Temora, Coolamon, Narrandera and Lockhart.

The effectiveness of this model of service delivery in helping rural and remote families to have equal access to early intervention services for children with disabilities in their local area will be assessed. The model includes mentoring and supporting new graduate therapists to encourage them to stay in rural areas. Resources produced will be valuable for other early childhood intervention services particularly those operating in rural areas in Australia and will include piloted training and mentoring to other rural regional centres. CONTACT: Mrs Sue Davies, Service Manager, Kurrajong Early Intervention Service (02) 6926 2466.

Benevolent Society

The Partnerships in Early Childhood (PIEC) Program promotes strong, healthy relationships between children, child care centre staff, families and communities by using the child care centre as a ‘bridge’ to other services and programs. Child care settings play a significant role in family and community life and are often the first place families turn to when they need help. The PIEC Program places child care centres at the heart of the community, building on existing strengths and resources.

This project expands the existing PIEC model to an additional 13 child care centres, providing a family worker or psychologist to work in each centre with children, families and staff to provide support and training. By partnering with child care centres, local councils and other service providers, the program will lead to better integration across community sectors.

The PIEC Program assists families in the North Wyong area on the Central Coast of NSW and the south-east and south-west areas of Sydney. It is anticipated that over 1000 families will be provided with support.

CONTACT: Mr Greg Antcliff (02) 9339 8024.

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