A CITY of Ballarat team dedicated to providing early years learning opportunities for the region was recently celebrated with a State Government award.<\/p>\n
The municipality’s Early Years Partnerships team, earlier this month took home the Creating Collaborative Community Partnerships accolade in the Victorian Early Years Awards.<\/p>\n
A collaboration with Uniting Ballarat and Grampians Public Health Unit, the team received the award for developing the Ballarat’s Children: Collaborating for Systems Improvement Sessions program.<\/p>\n
City of Ballarat’s director of community wellbeing Matthew Wilson said the initiative is a great example of collaboration across different sectors for the benefit of children and families.<\/p>\n
“It’s great to see medical, education and care, and community services practitioners from across Ballarat coming together to improve outcomes for Ballarat’s children and families,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The commitment of staff from different sectors to sharing knowledge and resources is commendable and worthy of recognition.”<\/p>\n
The program was established last year and entails a series of monthly two-hour sessions centred around networking and development, and building stronger relationships between participants.<\/p>\n
Each meeting averages 50 attendees across the region’s education, medical, and community sectors.<\/p>\n
“What a wonderful achievement for all involved,” said Uniting Ballarat’s senior manager for community engagement and support Warrick Davison.<\/p>\n
“The cross-sector collaboration has not only strengthened networks in the region, but assisted professionals to develop their knowledge and resources ultimately benefiting children in our region.”<\/p>\n
The program was co-designed by the City of Ballarat’s Best Start facilitator with financial support from the Ballarat 4 Kids, the State Government, and Uniting Ballarat.<\/p>\n
Now in its 19th year, the awards saw 10 winners out of 17 finalists, with each recipient receiving $15,000 in grant funding.<\/p>\n
Other groups in the running for the award were Ararat Early Learning Centre’s Grandfriends Program in partnership with East Grampians Health Service, and Gorrinn Village, as well as Rainbow P-12 College’s Accessing Essential Services for Rural Kids, with Royal Far West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A CITY of Ballarat team dedicated to providing early years learning opportunities for the region was recently celebrated with a State Government award. The municipality’s Early Years Partnerships team, earlier this month took home the Creating Collaborative Community Partnerships accolade in the Victorian Early Years Awards. A collaboration with Uniting Ballarat and Grampians Public Health […]<\/p>\n