The EarlyEd Mobile Early Childhood Education Approach (MECE) For Community Organisations and Services
Collaborative partnerships with local organisations and services across local communities to provide early childhood (EC) educational experiences, and parent engagement
- A range of service options to match with local activities and community needs/gaps (ie supported playgroups, drop in services, home visits, group learning experiences such as preparation for preschool sessions, grandparent sessions)
- Individual support needs of local children and families to engage in or access EC experiences.
- Reaching out and engaging those families who are less likely to engage in mainstream services
Connecting up with families who:
- are on waiting lists for childcare / preschool by offering early childhood education experiences at home or as a preparation for preschool group.
- are finding child care or preschool challenging by supporting the service and family to together maintain inclusion of the child.
- have younger siblings with concerns about their development
- have started childcare without the preschool having prior knowledge that they have a disability or developmental concerns by supporting the service and family to together maintain inclusion of the child
- have started childcare when there are concerns that the child has developmental concerns by supporting the service and family to access assessment and or intervention supports
- are going to start soon childcare / preschool but will most likely have difficulty coping with the learning setting and accessing the curriculum by offering transition supports
- need support by helping them access and maintain access with mainstream services.
The MECE program is built on collaborative partnerships that acknowledge the pathways local agencies have in place that connect with local families.
The MECE approach uses a model which involves for each child, family and community agency a Cycle of Reach, Engage, Support, Build/Develop and Connect.
This results in
- earlier involvement of children in early childhood education
- increased engagement by families in early childhood education for their children
Early childhood education will be provided through services that include preparation for preschool and childcare groups (particularly those on waiting lists), current community playgroups jointly run, mobile informal drop in playgroup services eg in local parks/shopping centres, toy library services, home visits, transition to early childhood services groups and supports (including centre visits), language and literacy workshops and itinerant early childhood service supports.
Aim: to help families, particularly those who are not actively engaged in community programs, experience early childhood education, see its value, develop their own child development parenting skills and be supported to find and maintain formal early childhood education.
Provide the required level of short – term support (and then) regular follow-up to help families recognise the need for early childhood education, to find/access/transition their child into an early childhood education setting that fits their needs so that they can fully engage and therefore maintain ongoing involvement. Families will be able to access ongoing support for themselves if kept connected with relevant community services.
Language and Literacy capacity building training and coaching for teachers and workers focuses on the quality of their interactions and educational practices and coaching of families using the evidence based Hanen programs®.
Language and Literacy coaching for parents and carers of children to help them make the most of their daily literacy and language interactions and early educational opportunities.
Where is MECE available
Services are available in Western and Northern Sydney LGA’s but resources on our website are available for everybody.
How to access MECE supports
Call us for more information about how we can partner with your organisation to work together to help your families know where to go for support and be included in your service so we can support long term sustainable changes to the community.
Call our office number on 9923 2727 or email services@earlyed.com.au and ask for the Start Strong Pathways Team Leader.
