The 8th of April is a special day for our team in Browns Plains Early Years Centre (EYC), who are celebrating a decade of supporting the Browns Plains community in QLD.
The Benevolent Society EYC in Browns Plains supports a diverse group of families consisting of single parents, grandparents and carer’s, younger and older parents, families with children with disability and multicultural families; with children under the ages of eight. Everyone is welcome!
Browns Plains is the satellite Early Years Centre and the team also work across Acacia Ridge and Beaudesert Early Years Centres (EYC). Their EYCs offer high quality and seamless child health, early childhood development and family support services to support the health, development, wellbeing and safety of families and children.
Parents and carers can access multiple services or get referrals to specialist services, for their children and for themselves.
Playgroups connecting families and services
Browns Plains host targeted and universal playgroups that provide education and development. Targeted groups include ‘Young Parents’, ‘Expecting Parents Group’, ‘Baby & Me’, ‘Jarjums’ (meaning a baby or young child) for Indigenous families, ‘Premmies’, ‘Soundbites’ and universal groups in which any child under eight can join.
Marisa Phillips, Manager of Browns Plains Hub said: “These groups are co facilitated by Child Development Specialists who are gurus on early development and lead group activities. Alongside the Specialists are Child and Family Practitioners who check in with families to provide support as needed and Child Health Nurses who provide education and advice on the health needs of children - such as nutrition, development and sleep routines.”
“It’s a holistic model of care. Health, education, wellbeing, community, all conjoined in a co-ordinated approach to support the individual and collective needs of the groups,” added Marisa.
Browns Plains also have a team of midwives that provide continuity of care for pregnant women, they have a weekly immunisation clinic, a Speech Pathologist who provides support to referred children of families plus a toy library for families to access and parenting programs. The Reach Out team are also based there, who provide online mentoring for parents of teenagers.
“In addition to playgroups, The Child and Family Practitioners provide one-on-one family support, via home visits and help families to achieve their goals, by linking them to services that provide a safe environment for their children or that supports their child’s development,” said Marisa.
Supporting families and each other during COVID-19
COVID-19 has changed the way in which the Browns Plains team work, with the team transitioning seamlessly to a whole new way of delivering services. Marisa said: “With limited face-to-face contact and working remotely in our homes – we still feel part of a bigger team with the same goal remaining.”
The teams work has evolved to adapt not seeing their clients face-to-face and have introduced ‘virtual playgroups’, bringing the activities into a home setting. The team are still seeing some families when safe for home visits.
“Activities have been planned around what resources are available at home. Also some families may not have reliable access to internet, so we’re brainstorming alternatives to meet family and children needs such as mailing ‘packs’. We’ve also made use of our Facebook page as a way to connect more with families,” she said.
Congratulations to the Browns Plains team for celebrating their 10 year anniversary and for their passion, commitment and continuous support for families and children in their local community.
The Team at our Browns Plains EYC
