Family initiative supporting children's health

About

The innovative Family Initiative Supporting Children's Health project was launched August 2022 to offer free, accessible workshops for parents and children, which focused on areas relating to childhood development. This included emotional literacy, social development and developmental milestones.

The goal was to equip families with the tools and information needed to feel safe, secure and confident. This helps support parents with their child's development, including social and emotional wellbeing.

The project included:

• a series of workshops, delivered by a qualified social worker and parenting consultant to promote improving self-esteem and empathy
• Playgroup SA delivered a workshop to assist parents in setting up their own playgroup
• a quality childcare program to allow parents to attend these educational workshops.

Background

The project responded to data from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) data for the City of Burnside which identified an increase in the number of children who are developmentally vulnerable in the social competence and emotional maturity domain.

The project has addressed this by providing parents and carers of young children with the knowledge on the importance of social connections through the various workshops and sessions included in the program.

Outcomes

This project was able to support over 520 people in the local area. It was also successfully in working with 50 participants who did not speak English as a first language, including 10 children under 5 years old. During the project period, there was 70 events delivered, supporting local families.

The program identified that there is a community need for social connection between families with young children. Parents want to be educated in early childhood development to allow their children to have the best start in life and be equipped with a good knowledge and understanding on how to achieve this .

Due to the success of the program the City of Burnside has budgeted for the program to continue for the next 12 months. Partnerships established with organisations such as Department of Human Services will also continue to deliver more of the workshops.

More information

More about the Family Initiative Supporting Children’s Health project can be found on the City of Burnside’s website.