The Early Childhood Access and Participation Project was conducted in 2011 in the Western Metropolitan Region of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. The project was a partnership between the Department, the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, Chin people from Burma who had settled in the City of Brimbank, and local early childhood service providers.
This Guide describes the strengths based model which was implemented to encourage access to early childhood services by people from refugee backgrounds. The model promotes dialogue between service providers and new arrivals to Australia to identify ways in which culture can influence access to early childhood services and practices that might discourage access. The model also encourages participants from refugee background to adopt the role of peer educators within their community, to promote messages learnt from the dialogue. For service providers, dialogue with those from refugee backgrounds prompts an analysis of practice and systemic changes that will likely improve use of their services. The Guide can be downloaded below.
