In early December 2017, I had the opportunity to join Sarah Woods and Emer Donohoe on a road trip to visit some of the more remote and regional Early Childhood and Childcare centres (ECCCs) in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Sarah, along with fellow Inclusion Professional Kylie, work from their hub office in Broome to support 31 ECCC’s across the vast Kimberley region in WA.
After a flight from Perth, Emer and I met Sarah in hot and sunny Broome. We enjoyed a restful night in the beautiful, tropical resort and were off bright and early the next morning for the nearly 700km road trip to Halls Creek.
Thanks to Naomi the director of Little Nuggets Childcare centre in Halls Creek, who welcomed us with open arms, and joined us for dinner that evening after working hard on her SIP with Sarah during the service visit. After our visit, Naomi said the following: “The team feel really valued with your feedback and are excited about seeing you guys next year.”
Emer and I managed to squeeze in some community networking in Halls Creek and even had a chat with a local community health nurse in the local IGA – a place that was a hive of activity at 4.30pm as we dropped in to stock up on supplies for the return journey.
Next morning we were on the road once again, this time with a scheduled stop in Fitzroy Crossing to visit the Baya Gawiy Early Childhood Learning Unit. I was lucky that we had time to stop off in the small Aboriginal community of Yiyili where we purchased some resources from the Aboriginal gallery based at the community school, before continuing on to Fitzroy.
I can’t wait for my next trip to see our Inclusion Professionals at work making a difference in their communities!
Debbie Brown
Program Manager, WA Inclusion Agency
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