History of this organisation
Griffith Child Care Centre Inc began life as a dream of Councillor Dorothy Waide, former teacher at St Patricks Primary School and in her later years a Councillor on Wade Shire Council and then Griffith City Council.
She had a long held dream to expand early childhood services from just preschool to extended hours services to enable women to return to work. In 1983, the Federal Government and State Governments across the nation joined forces to roll out a new early childhood delivery model and with it funding to support fees. They would establish 5000 new centre-based long day care places and 1120 new outside school hours places.
Long Day Care was not new, but it was found more often than not located in inner city suburbs close to factories. It was unregulated and a hodge lodge of models. This new package was clearly about providing the extended hours care to meet the increasing number of women to the workforce. From the federal perspective it was essentially a baby sitting service, and a product of the Hawke Labor Government. Each State was responsible for delivering the services, designing and building the facilities and determining which communities received them. The States were responsible for providing the capital funding for buildings and the Federal Government would provide the ongoing operational funding, to cover a significant proportion of the operating costs.
Dorothy Waide through the early 1980’ s was constantly researching child care needs and constantly on the look out for suitable sites. At the time I was the Coordinator of a Mobile Children ' s Service that was one of four established in 1979 by the NSW State Govt as part o their contribution to the United Nations designated“ Year of the Child”. Griffith Mobile Resource Unit, Inverell Mobile Services, The Magic Yellow Bus Redfern and the Wollondilly Mobile were all established at that time. Their brief to deliver services to families who were isolated.
The GMRU was based in Neighbourhood House, when I commenced in 1981, the base was East Griffith Shopping Centre. We later moved to the towns first Police Station in Benerembah St. Dorothy Waide was on the Neighbourhood Centre Board and also the Mobile Board, and we had long conversations about growing children ' s services. In 1984 after years of lobbying, Dorothy realised her dream, with the announcement of Griffith was to get a 40 place Long Care Centre. The design was the Mark II and is replicated across state.( Leeton received Mark III)
Local government was handed control and communities in the first two rounds had three building models to choose from. Griffith City Council had two options for location, the end of a parcel of land that was used by students at Griffith High School for a car park, land the Council owned and controlled, or to site the facility in the new social housing estate being established on the south western outskirts of Griffith, Pioneer Estate. Pioneer was selected. The land belonged to Housing, the building was funded by the State, built by local builder Terry Greedy, and the Council planning committee at the time made an alteration to the design, adding air conditioning instead of relying on the louvered vents that were designed into the buildings. The building was delivered in time for the new 1985 year.
The Committee that managed the service was a appointed by Council and it operated as a sub committee of council. For a Council that’ s focus was clearly on the three R’ s, the child care centre represented the first steps in the Community Service Provision and that was unsettling.
The Child Care Centre was very much an unknown in the community, families were wary and questioned mothers abandoning their children in the service.
I joined the service at the end of its first year, and recognised that it needed to have a changed dialogue around what it offered. Our focus was the fact that education and care cant be separated and that learning begins early. The focus on education, care, families and relationships and how all are essential in delivering the best outcomes for children, families and the community.
In 1988 the Griffith City Council moved the management of the organisation to an Incorporated association. This had sole responsibility for managing the organisation. The Board over the 30 years have extended the service from its initial 40 places to 73, this was achieved in 2001 with the extensive renovation and extensions that added the preschool playroom, kitchen, laundry and offices.
2014 additional renovations saw some internal playroom changes and the new cot rooms and staff study area. A national award of excellence was used to cover the cost of purchase and installation of our Solar Panels, plus we have replaced floor covers and upgraded playroom furnishings.
In 2006 the organisation were asked to take over the management of PCYC Brightsparks preschool and also the Cubby House Occasional Care service. The occasional care service was not viable, however the preschool had potential to grow, with new funding being available the following year to enable expansion.
The former exies Bowling Club boiling came up for tender in 2007 and we secured the right to access and refurbish the facility, Capital funding, plus funds raised by the previous Brightsparks parents provided the catalyst for the investment. We then settled into what became nearly 9 years of unravelling red tape until we were ready to actually build.
Sherene Blumer and Troy Patten project managed and designed the makeover and the work was completed by Mark Tyndall and Jim Shannon. Nearly all the materials and subcontracted work was provided by local people. The result is a preschool which has exceeded all benchmarks that were set and currently services 26 different ethic and cultural groups, and has been able to provide an outstanding quality early childhood program from day one. It is also a Griffith landmark that has been restored to its former glory and with little change to its internal or exterior structure.
In addition from 2008 to 2015 we were funded to provide a family support and enrichment program we called Griffith Connections. Its goal to provide families, young people and the broader community a stronger understanding of the critical role of parenting in supporting and developing the potential of children and young people. The project worked with some of the leading researchers and educators in this country. It developed a program for boys and girls and ran this across every school in the community.
The program was an extension of what Dorothy Waide Centre delivered everyday, but in a way that every family across the community could participate. It is one of the only stand alone early childhood services to work in this way, to develop its own resources and funding and create such a powerful agent of support and change.
At the very heart of the service has always been the child and their family. Relationships have always been at the centre of this and that we all share in the journey or raising children.
Neville Dwyer Director
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