Strengthening Supported Playgroups in Community Hubs

Overview

Supported playgroups in Hume City Council’s Community Hubs play an important role in the lives of children and families from refugee and migrant backgrounds. They provide early learning opportunities, foster social connection, and act as a welcoming gateway to services. Supported playgroups are offered in Community Hubs located in 15 schools across Hume which form part of the National Community Hubs Program (NCHP).

Learn more about the Community Hubs Australia’s National Community Hubs program

The NCHP was launched by Community Hubs Australia in 2013 to support newly arrived migrant and refugee families by improving access to education, health and social services, as well as opportunities for economic participation. Hume’s supported playgroups contribute to the NCHP Early Years objective of ‘enhancing opportunities for migrant and refugee children to improve learning outcomes’.

Learn more about Hume’s Community Hubs program

Playgroup facilitators play an integral role in ensuring learning experiences and referral pathways for families are supportive, safe and relevant. However, playgroup facilitators lack access to consistent support and professional development opportunities to enhance their practice. Recognising this, Hume City Council engaged the Centre for Community Child Health to lead the Strengthening Playgroups in Community Hubs project.

The purpose of the project was threefold:

• to strengthen access to high quality, evidence based early childhood and facilitation resources that build the capability and confidence of playgroup facilitators
• to articulate and share Hume’s playgroup model as a scalable approach that strengthens community connection and creates vocational pathways for playgroup families
• to improve outcomes for children and families from refugee and migrant backgrounds through a better supported, better connected, more consistent and professionalised playgroup workforce.

What we do

Working with Hume City Council and Community Hubs Australia, the Centre co-designed a Theory of Change to clearly articulate the vision for how supported playgroups in Hume’s Community Hubs work, the conditions required for quality delivery, and the outcomes they are intended to achieve for children, families, facilitators and schools.

We then undertook research with a range of people connected to Community Hubs, including playgroup facilitators, Hub Leaders, Hub Support Coordinators and families. This research focused on understanding both the strengths of those supported playgroups and the needs and challenges experienced by those delivering and participating in supported playgroups.

Drawing on these insights, we developed a set of practical, evidence-informed recommendations to strengthen supported playgroups in Community Hubs, with a focus on workforce capability and consistency of support. 

Finally, we acted on one of these recommendations directly by curating a targeted collection of resources on early years development, session planning, supporting families. These resources respond to learning needs identified by facilitators and Hub Leaders and are designed to support planning, delivery and ongoing professional learning in a time efficient and accessible way.