Bellarine Times
Thursday 29 May 2014
VOL 7. No 22
www.bellarinetimes.com.au
FREE WEEKLY
OCEAN GROVE & BARWON HEADS EDITION
Celebrate RACV Torquay’s first birthday – see pages 10-11
AIRBORNE
Competitors during round three of the TRE Victorian Inflatable Rescue Boat competition fly through the surf at Ocean Grove on the weekend. See pages 36-37. Photo: MICHAEL CHAMBERS
Ocean Grove’s Boorai Centre offers blueprint for others to follow
BENCHMARK BY REBECCA LAUNER
A NEW children’s centre set to open in Leopold next year will follow in the footsteps of Ocean Grove’s Boorai Centre. The City of Greater Geelong announced this week that it will manage the Leopold Integrated Children’s Centre in the same way it manages the Boorai Centre, which began operation at full capacity in January. Cr Kylie Fisher said the city had been successful in managing the operations of the Boorai Centre, which had already begun to establish a new benchmark in the way it delivered early childcare
services in Geelong. “Council can provide a professional lead agency structure and that is why we can deliver a management model that incorporates a single strategic plan, clear information sharing, a centralised budget and a single point of entry making it easy for families,” she said. “The City of Greater Geelong has a fantastic reputation as a registered kindergarten cluster manager and currently operates the Maternal and Child Health service that will be incorporated into the new Leopold Integrated Children’s Centre.” Cr Fisher said once the Leopold Integrated Children’s Centre operated
at full capacity it would employ 35 full-time equivalent staff, as well as providing opportunities for staff employed by external allied health and family support agencies to be based at the centre. She said the Leopold Children’s Centre, which would act as a one-stop shop for childcare by bringing together a range of services and practitioners, would be a great service for not only Leopold but the wider community. “I know residents living in Ocean Grove, Grovedale, Drysdale and Clifton Springs will all be able to benefit from using the new state-of-the-art facility. “I’m already looking forward to the
opening and can’t wait to hear about success stories.” Construction of the new Leopold Integrated Children’s Centre, which is a similar size and service complexity to the Boorai Centre, started in December 2013 and is scheduled for completion by the end of January 2015. The City of Greater Geelong anticipates the centre will be operational from April 2015. The development of the Leopold Integrated Children’s Centre has been designed to augment the limited capacity of existing local services to meet rapidly growing population requirements in Leopold and surrounding areas on the
Bellarine, while also expanding the range of programs and services available for local children and families. It will also increase childcare service options for commuter populations from Ocean Grove, Drysdale/Clifton Springs and the wider Bellarine Peninsula. Progress is also being made on the construction of the kindergarten in Barwon Heads. The concrete slab has been poured, steel has been erected and the timber framing is progressing. The project – which will be located in the Barwon Heads Village Park – is on schedule to be completed by the end of the year.
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