Where Families Meet the Service System, Wodonga, Vic
Stronger Families Learning Exchange Bulletin No.5 Autumn 2004 p.36
First glimpse - project responses to a series of questions
The project setting
The project is based in the regional city of Wodonga, in North East Victoria. The major aims are to provide the City of Wodonga with the opportunity to respond to issues identified through our initial consultation with parents and service providers and to sustain participation of our community that will see responses by the service system to the needs of parents that provides both short and longterm benefits.
Why is the project needed?
Through a communication and consultation with our community, parents had identified the service system as complex, confusing, frustrating and difficult to navigate. Parents commented that they were forced to tell their story over and over and were often sent to many different agencies before finding the one that they needed. Parents indicated a low level of trust in the ability of the service system to respond effectively to their needs. Service providers indicated their own frustrations at service overlaps, funding restraints and inflexibility and lack of opportunity for innovation and collaboration.
What are you trying to do in this project?
- To work with communities in the local area to develop innovative ways to strengthen family functioning with a particular emphasis on early childhood and parenting.
- To use action research to generate national longitudinal data on effective policy, practice, prevention and early intervention strategies, to be accessed along with relevant contemporary research findings.
- To improve family well being and to build on exiting infrastructure to provide coordinated support for families.
- Identify existing services available to families and carers of young children aged 0-6 years in the City of Wodonga.
- Identify the participation and inclusion and/or the barriers/risks/gaps in the range of services available to families.
- Identify the participation and inclusion and/or the barriers/risks/ gaps in the range of services available to, in particular fathers.
- Actively engage service providers in project development and outcomes.
- Evaluate and document existing community responses to gaps in the service system.
How are you going about it?
- Have established a steering committee of interested professionals from a diverse range of community and government agencies to work on the project.
- Developing a community directory that will be able to be used by professionals and families to provide a more concise and direct pathways to local services.
- Identifying services that families in the local area need to travel outside of Wodonga to access.
- Identifying waiting lists and eligibility criteria for services.
- Identifying the number of children attending preschool programs in either stand alone and long day childcare and therefore identify the number of children not attending a preschool program.
- Developing a Family card that will families can use that has the basic contact points for families in a manner that is easy to read and to follow. Engage local businesses to sponsor the printing and distribution of the card.
- Undertake a social research with a local university to determine the needs and experiences of young children and families at 3 transition stages.
