Early parenting centres play a critical role in ensuring parents are getting the advice and care they need, including support with sleep and settling, feeding and extra care for babies with additional needs.

The Early Parenting Centre will help improve the continuity of care for families who might require a range of health service responses to help support them in their parenting roles. This will be strengthened through the partnership with the Melbourne-based Queen Elizabeth Centre who are a long-standing early parenting service provider.

The new Ballarat centre is part of the Victorian Government’s $123 million investment in seven new early parenting centres to give more parents and their young children the best possible start to life.

The Early Parenting Centre will also develop affective pathways to collaborate and strengthen relationships with local health care facilities, primary care providers, the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative, child and family services, the Orange door and local disability agencies.

In addition to Ballarat, new parenting centres will be built in Bendigo, Geelong, Frankston, Casey, Wyndham and Whittlesea.

The centres will provide day-stays and longer residential stay programs to improve the health, wellbeing and developmental outcomes for children aged up to four-years-old. Each new centre will include 10 residential units and four day stay units – helping more than 5,000 extra families a year.