CECS reached out to Goodstart with offers of support and assistance and brainstormed various ways care could be offered to those families most in need.

Working closely with the centre leadership team at Goodstart Cowra - Centre Director Belinda Muldoon and Assistant Director Michele McGuiness, the CECs team worked to ensure assistance aligned with their needs.

Through this collaboration, a short-term solution was found, whereby Family Day Care and CECS centre-based services were able to offer care to a number of Goodstart families in the local area.

Ms McGuiness said while this event was an extreme inconvenience to families and staff, coming on the back of two years of COVID management and sector wide staffing shortages, the flow on impacts to the community were potentially devastating.

Many families whose children attend Goodstart are essential workers, who, without appropriate childcare, are unable to work, placing further stress on services in the community such as health care, education and essential retail.

"To have the support of another local service was an immediate boost to the comfort levels of staff and families, and the community spirit that developed as a result of our collaboration was very refreshing," she said.

General Manager for CECs, Libby Ewing-Jarvie said, "Cowra Early Childhood Services has been supporting communities in Cowra and surrounds for over forty years and it was instinctual to extend a helping hand to our Goodstart friends. We were so pleased we were able to help in some small way".

Cowra Early Childhood Services and Goodstart are planning a "Partnership Picnic" where families and educators from both services can come together to build relationships further and embed the recently formed community alliance.

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