...a focus on early childhood
Small Matters Newsletter
May 2007
The Peter Williams Trust fund was established in 1996 by Dr Alan & Dorothy Williams in memory of their son Peter. In their respective careers both Alan and Dorothy were a formidable team in the advocacy of quality services for pre-school children and their families, and especially for those children who faced the challenge of social and material disadvantage. This newsletter aims to keep you up to date on how the Trust funds are being utilised and to provide you with information on the programs that are helping the children of Victoria.
New Grants for 2007
We received a record number of applications for grants for 2007 and fortunately we have been able to support six programs:
Boroondara Kindergarten
Mildura Early Intervention Services
Try Kingsway Preschool
North Cheltenham Preschool Centre
Southern Health Play Education Department
Warracknabeal Child Care Centre
The program being supported at the North Cheltenham Preschool Centre involves a number of parenting sessions to assist a Sudanese family with 6 children and a Samoan single parent family with a blind child, deal with the stresses of adjusting to a new life in Australia and hopefully bring about positive outcomes for the children. The grant donated to the Southern Health Play Education Department will go towards appointing a play therapist to work with children attending the paediatric day renal unit. The Warracknabeal Child Care Centre is situated in a rural town in the Wimmera, in central western Victoria, and the program that we will be supporting is the development of an outdoor sandpit & adjoining dry creek bed that will allow for open ended and natural play opportunities for the children. Due to the severe drought conditions, the local community has found fund-raising for equipment very difficult at a time when the need to help support families with small children has become more urgent.
New Trustee - Felicia Conroy
The Peter Williams Trust is delighted to announce the addition of Felicia Conroy to our trust. Felicia is a retired kindergarten teacher who was director of South Melbourne Mission Kindergarten for 26 years. Felicia worked with many vulnerable families during this period and also encountered many children of different nationalities. In the year 2000, Save The Children awarded Felicia with their White flame Award for her outstanding services to children. This was followed by a Federation Medal from the Commonwealth Government for her services to young children and their families in the local community. Felicia has been assisting Save The Children and been involved with their innovative mobile playbus programme (which the Peter Williams Trust supported last year) taking play programmes to inner city areas servicing marginalised families, many of them Aboriginal families not accessing early childhood programmes. Felicia was also a member of the FKA Children’s Services Board for 12 years.
Boroondara Kindergarten
It is very appropriate that the Peter Williams Trust will support a program at Boroondara Kindergarten this year, given that the co-founder of this trust Dorothy Williams worked there during the war years as a kindergarten teacher. The trust has provided funds to assist the newly integrated Sudanese playgroup at the kindergarten that will offer support to Sudanese families with children under 5 years, many of whom have experienced trauma as a result of their refugee experiences. A Sudanese teacher will be employed to work alongside the existing teaching team and engage family members in play with their children, building on cultural practices such as weaving, beading, hair braiding and cooking. Other families from the kindergarten will be involved, and this will provide opportunities for cultural exchange and non-threatening role modelling of different ways of parenting. Local community services will also be involved, allowing Sudanese families easier access to information and support.
Mildura Early Intervention Services
Mildura Early Intervention Services, part of the Mallee Family Care in Mildura, has the goal to support families who have a child with a delay or disability in order to identify their child’s unique strengths and individual needs, and provide therapeutic and developmental programs to address the needs. The trust is providing funds to purchase a small pool of equipment for children with high physical needs that can be lent to families on a rotating basis so that they can continue with the daily physiotherapy and occupational therapy needs of the child without the high expenses and excessive travel.
Try Kingsway Preschool
Try Kingsway Preschool is a small multicultural kindergarten in Caroline Springs created after the need was identified for early childhood services in this area. Government grants helped the kindergarten become established by providing basic equipment however it does not have any outdoor play equipment. The funds from the Trust will allow them to build a cubby house that will encourage children to play and communicate with their peers.
Grants
The Peter Williams Trust disburses approximately $25,000 each year. In the past programmes from Ardoch, Connections Uniting Care, Berry Street, VICSEG & Save The Children have been supported.