The City of Greater Geelong is inviting community members to have their say on the direction of the Municipal Early Years Plan for the next three years through to the end of 2025.
The draft of the City's Municipal Early Years Plan 2022-25 aims to continue to improve the health and wellbeing of children from birth to age eight years across the municipality.
The Plan aligns with the Greater Geelong: Clever and Creative future Community Aspiration and builds on the previous Municipal Early Years Plan 2018-2022 to continue to provide services, programs, and activities that:
- Support families to help their children achieve their full potential,
- Support positive mental wellbeing of children and families,
- Provide early and sustained support for those who need it most, and
- Provide equitable, accessible, and inclusive services.
- Across the three-year scope of the plan the City also aims to provide opportunities for children's voices to be included in planning and evaluation, and giving insight into what is meaningful to them.
Greater Geelong Mayor Peter Murrihy;
I applaud the prospect of community input into an updated plan, particularly considering the region's increasing number of young children.Greater Geelong has the fourth largest population of children across all Victorian municipalities and it's absolutely vital that we provide the very best opportunity for our children to thrive.
Creating an environment in which our children can develop to reach their full potential is one of the fundamentals of our work at Council and, to assist us in doing that effectively, we need the contribution of community members.
Greater Geelong's demographic profile reveals there are 34,800 children from new-born to eight years of age across the municipality.
However, almost 19.3 percent of children who began full-time education in 2015 were deemed to be vulnerable in one or more areas.
While that percentage is slightly lower than the Victorian average (19.9 per cent).
Cr Sarah Mansfield, chair of the Diversity, Inclusion and LGBTIQ+ portfolio;
It is vital to ensure that the City continued to strive to remove any form of disadvantage.There is significant social and economic variation across the Greater Geelong municipality.
We know that a child may be developmentally vulnerable for any of several reasons but it's important to continue striving for equity and giving all children the very best opportunity to succeed.
Community members can view the draft version of the Municipal Early Years Plan 2022-2025 and share their feedback through an online survey by going to https://yoursay.geelongaustralia.com.au/MEYPfeedback
Consultation closes on Sunday 21 August 2022.
