BUSHkids Annual Report 2019-20

ANNUAL REPORT 2019–2020

Book Packs

Also popularly known as “parents’ sanity packs” these clever initiatives were created for some of our families most disadvantaged in online access to services because of poor internet coverage or lack of appropriate devices and affordable technology.

COVID-19 has changed the world significantly. The methods used to provide services to children and their parents completely altered during the lockdown period from March to July 2020. Our new ‘virtual playgroups’ quickly became a hit during COVID-19 lockdown but we swiftly identified children and families at risk of missing out on these vital alternatives. BUSHkids teams across the state put their thinking caps on to come up with a solution, and from this rapid brainstorming process came the idea of a practical pack. Contents of pack one included basic resources – this was important, as we did not want anyone to feel they needed to buy things to be able to join in and enjoy the fun activities with their children. Basic contents were: glue, scissors, coloured pencils, paintbrush, food colouring (to act as paint) and dry ingredients to make playdough. Further packs each fortnight included: • two or three children’s books • nursery rhymes • craft items related to the books that helped with fine motor development • BUSHkids’ Playtime cards and suggestions of other play activities.

The CPSS team collected feedback from parents as we wanted to ensure they were feeling connected and supported during the pandemic. In a COVID-19 survey sent to parents to assess that services were meeting children’s and parents’ needs, 95% reported the quality of the book bags were excellent or very good . “Bushkids has been great. The packages, the activities, books, online programs - excellent. Very grateful for your work and efforts! Thank you very much, much appreciated.”

TOPIC SECTION 23 B OK PACKS CPSS INITIA IVE

More parent feedback amplifying these sentiments: “The home packages have been excellent, cannot praise them enough. The time and effort put into them has been great, we have spent heaps of time doing the craft and reading the books. My daughter is 5 and she loves the craft activities and is very excited to get the new pack each fortnight. Would love this to continue. We are home schoolers and live on a large property, so the lockdown has not affected us like some people.”

We appreciated that parents needed encouragement as well, so we added some beautiful posters about self-care created by Warwick artist Sue Hamlet – and a tea bag to remind them to pause and have a ‘cuppa’!