Creating Family Friendly Communities
As part of our commitment to meeting the needs of women and families during pregnancy and early parenting, we are working with local communities to help them identify their own community needs and establish services to meet them.
Over the past three years we have worked with groups in Sydney, Melbourne, Toowoomba, Canberra, Western Australia, Griffith and Gippsland to establish or enhance services. Many of these centres have all their staff and volunteers undertake our online training so that they have a consistent ethical and professional approach to service delivery. This also ensures the public that workers have suitable training to meet their needs.
Our Centre of Excellence project, Olivia's Place has been established in Warragul in Victoria and is staffed by local professionals and supported by trained volunteers.
The purpose of this service is to:
- identify and meet the needs of local women and families during pregnancy and early parenting
- develop and deliver services to meet the needs
- evaluate the service
- enhance community participation in supporting families
- increase family friendliness of local businesses
Our aim in establishing this service is to inform the development of best practise standards in pregnancy and parenting support services nationally. We know that many women and families may need support and encouragement at some point in the pregnancy and parenting journey and the service aims to meet the broader community need.
The services provided include:
- baby change and feeding facilities for the CBD area of Warragul
- baby change and feeding facilities set up at local markets and other community events
- material goods including baby clothes, maternity clothes, baby furnishings
- community education for parents including: infant massage, feeding and settling baby etc
- education program for first time parents
- education of local businesses and community groups on creating family friendly environments
We also provide education, resources and consultancy services to existing services to help them enhance their service delivery, establish new services and ensure they have the latest information to support their work. We encourage new and established centres to broaden their service provision to encompass a whole community approach to support all families.