The Minister for Early Childhood Education, Jenny Mikakos MP presented Foundation House with the Minister’s Early Years Award  at a ceremony held at the National Gallery of Victoria on 23 October. The Minister’s Early Years Award   was presented to acknowledge the work undertaken in the Foundation House Hume Refugee Early Years Cluster 2017-18.

Selected by the Minister, the Award is a special commendation for a program that reflects the 2018 theme of ‘supporting positive relationships with children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds’.

The Hume Early Years Refugee Support Cluster is a collaboration between Foundation House, Hume City Council Best Start Program and ten locally based Early Years centres and agencies. It aims to improve inclusion for families and children of refugee backgrounds in early years’ services.

Over 18 months, each cluster partner reviewed their services to see how they could be more inclusive. Services made changes to the way they work with families and agencies to better support children from refugee backgrounds. The many changes included the development of visual and translated resources, asking parents to teach staff key languages phrased and encouraging parents to volunteer at the centre.

Foundation House Program Leader, Donna Chesters said, “This award is fabulous recognition for the collaborative work of all the agencies involved. Seeing the way in which this work has increased the inclusion of children of refugee backgrounds is amazing.”

Foundation House partners in the program include:

• Hume City Council (Family, Youth and Children’s Services) .
• Newbury Children and Community Centre
• Craigieburn Child and Family Centre
• Malcolm Creek Pre School
• Pelican Childcare Fairways
• Hilton Street Pre School
• KU Craigieburn Children’s Centre
• Good Samaritan Catholic Primary School
• Mount Ridley College
• Victorian Inclusion Agency
• Bright Beginnings – Family Day Care

Congratulations to our Early Years team!