Hub showcase: Parent Place in Ballarat

Published

Friday, April 5, 2024 - 9:33 AM

Outside Parent Place in Central Ballarat.

Please provide an overview of Parent Place.

Parent Place exists to support families with young children to thrive, providing timely and relevant information and community connection in a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment. Families can visit Parent Place to feed and change their babies and have a play. Families also visit Parent Place for information on services relevant to young children including playgroup, Maternal and Child Health, childcare, Family Day Care, immunisation and kindergarten registration.

Parent Place is staffed by volunteers and the Parent Place Facilitator. Family and Children’s Services staff also work in the co-located offices. Parent Place communicates its opening hours, activities and resources primarily through its Facebook Page and newsletter.  Parent Place works with internal and external stakeholders to ensure appropriate services are available to families through Parent Place and appropriate referrals and handovers are made with families. A Parent Place Outreach model has recently been developed to coincide with the growth of Ballarat and ensure everyone has equal access to the service. The outreach model has provided essential supports to all members of the community across Ballarat.

 

What is your role at Parent Place?

The Parent Place facilitator’s role is to engage stakeholders and build partnerships with internal and external services to reach and support families. The Parent Place facilitator also coordinates and promotes operations across the physical environment as well as online through a monthly newsletter and social media. Volunteers are recruited, managed and supported by the Parent Place Facilitator who is on-site at all times during opening hours alongside the volunteers.

 

'Families can visit Parent Place to feed and change their babies and have a play.'

 

 

What is unique or special about your Hub?

From the moment a family enters Parent Place, families are made to feel welcome through our facilitators and volunteers. Our team are exceptional in catering to each family’s diverse, individual needs. By having other services co-located at Parent Place, we work in a cohesive manner to provide wrap-around support for families. Parent Place is seen as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for services, information, social interaction and key learning experiences for young children.

 

What are three strategies your Hub uses to ensure that children and families feel welcomed and connected?

1. Volunteers

Our volunteers welcome families as soon as they walk in the door. The door is opened with a friendly smile. Volunteers ensure all families know there is free tea and coffee in the space, toilets and spaces to feed and play. Our volunteers run activities which allow families to have opportunities to connect, such as story time and craft time. While families can attend these sessions, they can also come in anytime during our opening hours for a play and will be supported by our volunteers with a chat, a play together and a listening ear.

2. Strong Partnerships

We have strong partnerships with internal and external stakeholders who have shared goals to support children’s outcomes and link families into the local community. This allows us to build stronger connections with new families who may have hesitation to access our hub, We provide soft handovers and referrals to families if, and when, they need them. Our co-located services such as free legal advice and family violence services offer flexibility where we can arrange support for a family via phone, email or in person on days where the service wasn’t due to be on-site at the hub or at an outreach location. 

3. Welcoming Spaces

Our hub is centrally located in the heart of Ballarat. It is accessible via public transport. Our space contains a lot of natural light and is full of inclusive, diverse toys and books for a variety of ages. We aim to make our space accessible for all and engage our community inclusion officer to assist with making our space welcoming, supportive and inclusive.

 

 

What would you like to see for all children and families accessing child and family hubs across Australia?

It would be great to see more outreach initiatives adapted by other LGAs. Resourcing and effort can be flexible. Smaller LGAs may choose to run initially as an outreach service, partner with their local library or only run the service on limited days or times a week.  Having other family and children’s services staff co-located within the space allows for greater collaboration and for families to have a seamless referral process to another support, such as supported playgroup or Maternal Child Health. All for this would make children and families accessing hubs across Australia receive a consistent, family-centred approach with childhood wellbeing at the forefront.

 

Visit the Parent Place webpage.
Like and follow Parent Place on Facebook.
Follow Parent Place on Instagram.