Well it's been a whirlwind of a year so far. For many of you reading who follow me on Facebook and Instagram (Sam Gourley Occupational Therapist or Sam Gourley OT), You will know that at the end of 2021 we outlined our intention to build our integrated Early Intervention centre on the Sunshine Coast for children with moderate to complex ASD. This project is the first of its kind in Queensland (using the Early Start Denver Model) and was very ambitious! For those of you who I have spoken to about this, you will know its been an absolute roller coaster. We have spent hundreds of hours searching for the right opportunity to either build or buy a centre. Last year we even expanded our scope to build in other nearby regions and have exhausted opportunities that came up in Caboolture, Redcliffe, Brisbane and even the Gold Coast. However in the crazy post-covid state that the building industry has been in, and with not many people selling centres right now, I'm sorry to say we have been unsuccessful in building a centre thus far.
With this in mind, a few months ago, we pivoted our focus to instead search for a pre-existing centre that we might be able to purchase to establish this brand new service. We have searched high and low, and we think we have approached almost every childcare centre in the region. After driving up and down the coast over and over, and after hundreds of hours of work chasing opportunities, unfortunately we have not been able to find the appropriate centre to buy.
The last year hasn't been a waste though, I will say, we got 95% of the way there on at least one opportunity to buy a centre in Redcliffe which unfortunately fell through based on certification problems with the department. We have also learnt a whole lot during this time, and we have been able to start building our team, including recruiting our lead interventionist Eryn Byrnes!
With that in mind, we will not be deterred! We have made the decision to step off the rollercoaster and to get a program started so kids can at least start benefiting from this intervention. We made a promise to the community that we would offer a comprehensive Early Intervention service to the coast to open in 2023 and we intend to keep it. So I am proud to announce, that in April 2023, Kindred Kids Early Intervention will open its doors to a bridging Early Intervention program that will be a much needed addition the Early Intervention services in our region.
This program will be held in a location central to the Sunshine Coast (we are still working out the specifics), will cater for around 40 kids between the ages of 1-5 years old, who live with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and will allow families to finally access evidence-based comprehensive early intervention services within the Sunshine Coast region.
This program will be in place for 2023 and will merge into our Integrated Early Intervention/Long Daycare program sometime in 2024 when an appropriate child care is either acquired or built. When this time comes, our early intervention program will be overlayed with standard long day-care costs (including using the childcare subsidy) and all children who access comprehensive Early Intervention with Kindred Kids will have first preference for enrollments in that new centre.
With this in mind, our bridging program caters for the intervention component of the group Early Start Denver Model EI program for children within preschool ages <6 years old, and while we aren't able to offer long-daycare at this stage, we are so excited to finally bring the ESDM to the Sunshine Coast in a meaningful way. Children participating will be enrolled into two 3-hour sessions per week (a morning or afternoon session, similar to ECDP). During this time, they will participate within a group of up to 5 children to receive intervention. Sessions are facilitated by two allied health professionals (ESDM Practitioner and/or Occupational Therapist) and a trained therapy assistant team. Within each group session, each individual child receives both group intervention (for common goals) and individualised intervention (for specific individual goals) to address developmental needs.
Expressions of interest are open now, and enrollments will be taken following assessment of each individual child during March/April 2023 period. For more information, or to lodge an expression of interest, check out our website here, give us a call on 5406 2044 or email Nicole at admin@kindredkids.com.au!
コメント