Page 2254 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 August 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The purpose-built Gungahlin Child and Family Centre was modelled on the successful Lyons Recovery Centre used after the bushfires where a whole range of services gathered at the Lyons primary school and opened their services to support families who had been affected by the bushfire. As a result of the feedback of the success of that model for families, the government took it one step further and looked at how to provide a similar type of model targeted to young people and families with young children across Canberra.
The logical place to start that, of course, was in Gungahlin where we have large amounts of young children. That is where the most of our young families are and certainly where the pressure around services for children was being felt. The purpose-built child and family centre was officially opened in May this year. However, for about a year before that, the Gungahlin Child and Family Centre’s staff were offering services from a temporary facility at Gungahlin and providing outreach services whilst that purpose-built child and family centre was being constructed.
In Tuggeranong, outreach and other services have also been established and last month it was a great pleasure, again, to turn the first sod for the construction of the Tuggeranong facility, just as I had done for the Gungahlin facility about a year before. Both child and family centres have three areas of focus: child and family support, community partnerships and community development and education. As we know, the early years, particularly the first three years, are critical for the future development of health, behaviour and learning. We know that investment in the wellbeing of infants and young children delivers long-term benefits to our community. In the 2004-05 budget the government provided more $11 million for the construction of two child and family centres, as well as providing substantial recurrent funding to both centres. They are certainly demonstrating already that this is money that has been very well spent.
Mr Speaker, what makes the work of these centres so effective is their strong grounding in the local community, including the relationships they are developing with local businesses and clubs. Certainly many of the Gungahlin shops are supporting the Gungahlin Child and Family Centre. They are sponsoring events and sponsoring playgroups, paint and play, as an example, to allow for further services to be provided in addition to the one the government is already funding.
The centre at Gungahlin has already reached more than 8,000 residents, both as direct clients and through its community development and community education activities. Over a relatively short period, and working from its temporary headquarters, the Tuggeranong Child and Family Centre has interacted with more than 2,000 families.
So what do the centres provide? Simply, they enable families to seek assistance with child health and parenting issues from one central location. A team of health and community development professionals work at the centres. They include social workers, psychologists, child and maternal health nurses, speech pathologists and early childhood educators.
The centres offer a warm and welcoming environment and encourage parents to seek assistance early with any child-health or parenting issues they may have, including behaviour issues. I think that one of the most positive aspects of the child and family
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .