Help Shape a More Family Friendly Baw Baw

Help Shape a More Family Friendly Baw Baw

Published on 20 February 2019

Baw Baw Shire Council is seeking feedback and ideas on ways to create a more family friendly community.

The Australian Early Development Census data shows not all children do as well as they could in their first few years of life. Council is taking a proactive approach to identify opportunities and address local needs to help create a more family friendly environment.

The Centre for Community Child Health (a research group of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute) published “The First Thousand Days” evidence paper in September 2017 which showed:

Experiences in early childhood have a lasting impact. The best opportunity to build a strong foundation for lifelong health and wellbeing occurs between conception to the end of a child’s second year. The social and environmental conditions in which families are conceiving and raising children have a direct impact on a child’s development. It is never too late to make changes that improve health and wellbeing. Raising healthy, happy children is a whole-of-community responsibility.

Through this project Council will collaborate with community, local services and businesses to build on the great things already happening in our area to make families stronger.

Have your say before consultation closes at 5.00pm on Friday 5 April 2019.

Following this community consultation, all responses will be collated to identify recurring themes and be further developed at an upcoming forum. All forms, submissions and correspondence will be acknowledged either by email or letter, to confirm receipt of feedback.

For full project details, please visit www.bawbawshire.vic.gov.au/FamilyFriendly

Quotes attributable to Mayor Cr Mikaela Power

“An informed, involved and connected community welcomes children and families. We want to encourage and support residents, local businesses and agencies to work together to contribute to better outcomes for all families and children.”

“Baw Baw is already a family-friendly community with a variety of early years care and education options, lots of playgroups, inclusive events and markets, lot of playgrounds and wide-open spaces for play. We’re looking to build on this and develop even more ways in which we can further cater for and support families with young children.”

“We’re a growing community with more and more young families choosing to call Baw Baw home. It’s important we hear from parents, carers and families to help us gauge what is needed to make Baw Baw even more family-friendly. We highly encourage everyone to fill in the online survey and have your say.”