By Denise Deason
THE State Government has provided $800,000 to establish Wyndham Best Start, a children’s services program.
Minister for Children Lisa Neville launched the program at the Iramoo Community Centre last week.
“Best Start aims to link families with local support services by improving access to early childhood services, educating parents and promoting child-friendly communities,” she said.
Member for Tarneit Tim Pallas said the $800,000 funding would be spread over four years.
“The project will help to improve the health, development and wellbeing of local children by boosting support for young families,” he said.
The Wyndham program increases the number of Best Start sites across Victoria to 30, including six Aboriginal-specific sites.
Member for Lara John Eren said Wyndham was an ideal location for the program because it had a larger than average number of children aged under 14 years _ 24.4 per cent of the total population, compared to a Victorian average of 19.5 per cent.
The program is part of the Growing Communities, Thriving Children initiative, which was allocated $24.97 million over four years in the 2007-08 State Budget to provide children’s services in nine council areas on the rural metropolitan fringes.
