Introducing the Abecedarian model
Bindi Bindi Place will be a purpose built, 7-day shared care centre, using the forward-thinking Abecedarian model for supporting our most vulnerable children.
Bindi Bindi Place will support children and babies under 6 years of age and their parents, breaking intergenerational abuse and mapping out a better future for participating families.
This new and alternative model to protect and care for these vulnerable children and at-risk families is needed immediately and is based on the forward-thinking Abecedarian model and delivered by Communify.
Based on a proven approach used in the US and Australia (Victoria), Bindi Bindi Place will be a purpose-built, high quality, multidisciplinary specialist care centre, operating up to seven days a week, and will adopt an enriched Early Years Education Program.
Culturally inclusive practices will lay the foundations for participation by every child and family that attends the centre. This will serve to strengthen children’s self-identity and recognise the importance of kincare and the wider community in parenting children.
The majority of the operating costs will be sourced through the Commonwealth Child Wellbeing subsidies that have been established to give extra help to families where a child is considered to be at risk of harm, abuse, or neglect, in formal foster care or formal kinship placement or in the care of the state, territory or Minister.
Bindi Bindi Place will also have specialists such as child psychologists, behavioural experts, allied and physical health practitioners who will have regular contact with children living in high-risk family environments.
Integral to Bindi Bindi Place will be an attachment-focused, trauma-informed, primary-care model with small teacher to child ratios. This means that every child will be allocated a key specialist who is that child’s primary carer.
The goal of this model is to allow significant attachments for children who may be experiencing attachment disorders in their homecare environments. This is particularly crucial for the growing number of children moving through the Queensland foster care system.
An important part of the care model is to provide the children with at least 75% of their daily nutritional needs and any required healthcare.
Building trusted relationships between centre staff and parents is critical. Parents will be encouraged to be highly involved in the program and invited to spend regular time alongside staff to further develop their parenting and caregiving skills.
