WHAT
A NEW COMMUNITY APPROACH TO PROTECT OUR VULNERABLE CHILDREN
Bindi Bindi Place will provide:
An enriched care giving and early education model for vulnerable babies and children whose normal home environment fails to meet their developmental needs.
A culturally appropriate program for children and families supporting kincare and broader family involvement.
A safe, supportive care and learning environment in a multidisciplinary specialist care setting, offering care up to 7 days a week on an as needs basis
A focus on engaging parents and supporting them to build their parenting skills, improve their family environment, and contribute to the developmental needs of their children.
Individual therapeutic intervention and support focusing on the needs of each child and their family.
A community hub offering wellbeing services and support (eg immunisation, parenting skills, training and employment services, drug and alcohol and mental health services).
Community connections for at-risk families to combat social exclusion and isolation and support positive transitions to kindergartens, playgroups and mainstream schooling.
A safe space for women in DV refuges, providing stability for their children.
And most importantly, a much-needed centre for our vulnerable children who need our support, desperately.
Why we need Bindi Bindi Place
Bindi Bindi Place will be delivered by experienced early childhood practitioners with a deep understanding of attachment and trauma theory.
Children participating in Abecedarian enriched learning programs, like what is proposed for Bindi Bindi Place, have experienced positive, long-term life impacts.
Young adults who participated, as children, in the North Carolina Abecedarian Project in the USA had:
much higher percentages in higher education and in skilled jobs
much lower rates of teenage pregnancy
reduced criminal activity.
In addition, the Child Projection Society in Victoria ran a 10-year randomised controlled trial of the Early Years Education Program (EYEP) targeted at children experiencing significant family stress, social disadvantage including risk of abuse and neglect. The early results of this trial have concluded that children attending the centre had:
an increase in IQ
improved language development
improved resilience
better social and emotional development.
Bindi Bindi Place will have a strong therapeutic model and will include multidisciplinary teams including a clinical psychologist, a behavioural psychologist, a social worker and a teacher.
What does Bindi Bindi mean?
The Abecedarian model works to provide a safe, therapeutic and educational place for young children and their families.
A place, through clever design, which will wrap around the child and their family to help break intergenerational patterns, learn new ones, establish healthy routines and extend therapeutic support.
It’s often described as creating a protective and stable cocoon around the child and their family.
To ensure Bindi Bindi Place is inclusive and sensitive to all cultures, Communify regularly consult with all communities to provide the best support for their families.
In consultation with our Indigenous elders, the name Bindi Bindi was selected for its reference in the local Indigenous language to ‘butterfly’, symbolising the growth and transformation that occurs in the chrysalis.
It was determined this name was perfect for what Bindi Bindi Place represents, helping children and their families transform and break free of past behaviours while they evolve to new beginnings.