The Early Years Online Hub is now live

The Early Years Online Hub was recently launched in Robinvale with community members, local services, and practitioners in attendance.

What is the Early Years Online Hub?

Feedback from families indicated that the ongoing impact of Covid-19 left them feeling disconnected and unable to access early years information. The members of The Better Together Collaborative Table, of which Our Place is a member, chose to invest in developing a virtual community knowledge hub. The vision for the Hub was to provide information on services that families can access across Swan Hill Rural City Council and neighbouring communities.

After extensive community consultation and working alongside the website developer, the Early Years Online Hub was launched in Swan Hill on the 15 June and Robinvale on the 17 June 2022, with approximately 40 caregivers and children attending each launch. Several service providers were also in attendance; however, families were regarded as VIPs at both events.

Now that the Hub is live, this local initiative means that families can access local, up-to-date and accessible information about early childhood services, general information for families and service providers, community places and events all in one place. The Hub also allows families to casually browse and explore services at their own leisure and empowers them to make direct contact with services. Other features of the Hub include embedded artwork by a local Aboriginal artist, a QR code for easy access and a pop-up feedback function on the home page.

To view the Early Years Online Hub Click Here

How Our Place will continue to support the Hub

As a partner organisation for this initiative, Our Place has been heavily involved in the development of the website, including sourcing and liaising with the web developer and continuing to ensure the Hubis user-friendly. Our Place has also supported the collection of information that is now housed within the website.

To support the website to remain up to date and grow, each member of the partnership has nominated an administration representative. Our Place is one of these representatives and, as part of this role, will also assist with identifying gaps and liaising with community organisations to gather new information. Our Place has also committed to contributing to some of the ongoing annual costs involved with hosting the website. 

The partnership is also working toward supporting the community to learn about and use the Hub. Our Place has recently visited local playgroups and professional networks to showcase the Hub and provide insight into how to locate and navigate the website. There are also plans in Term 3 to meet with more community groups, including youth groups and other local networks to further showcase and spread the word about this great resource.

Aligning with the Our Place Approach

Our Place assisting with the development and ongoing support of the Hub aligns with many aspects of the Our Place approach, including our guiding principles that families should have seamless access to support.

The Early Years Online Hub also aligns with the Our Place Element of High-quality Early Learning, Health and Development. To learn more about this element and the Our Place Approach Click Here