SDN Children's Services Inc. Annual Report 2010

About SDN Children’s Services
Our mission
The continuing mission of SDN Children’s Services is to:
• provide high quality early childhood education and care
• strengthen families and communities
• address inequalities faced by children.
Delivering on our mission
We progressed our mission in 2009–10 by ensuring 3043
children in 23 centres benefited from an innovative early
education program. 787 families were strengthened in their
parenting role through 10 SDN family support programs. We
partnered with 1311 other providers of children’s services,
working with them to actively include children who are facing
a range of challenges in their lives, thus strengthening local
communities. We addressed inequalities faced by children
by providing early intervention services for 207 children with
disabilities, by working with Aboriginal communities to provide
training and employment support for 106 Aboriginal people
and by providing financial assistance (including scholarships)
to help 3410 children access early education opportunities.
Our values
In carrying out our mission we commit ourselves to being:
• trustworthy and reliable
• inclusive and respectful
• creative and innovative.
Our vision
We are working towards a future where:
• the promise and potential of every child is realised
• families and communities are strong and caring
SDN’s philosophy
All our people, services, programs and centres are committed to achieving our mission and
vision and to expressing our values. We are a community of learners where children and adults
in all their diversity are welcomed, respected and encouraged to contribute and grow.
We believe learning is influenced by social and cultural
contexts, and happens when children and adults trust
others and want to solve problems. We work to make our
environments and workplaces safe, trustworthy and inviting,
filled with interesting materials, resources and equipment
that encourage exploration and a sense of achievement for
both children and adults.
We support families and communities because children’s
lives and development are enhanced when their families and
community are strengthened. We celebrate the strengths of
every individual, group, family and community and believe
we all contribute to the wellbeing of the environments we
live in.
We encourage ongoing innovation by recording and
communicating the learning of children, adults, teams,
groups, families and communities, and by learning from the
experiences of others.
We work with other agencies and organisations, sharing
knowledge and skills, collaborating to influence public policy
and practices and partnering to better fulfil our mission and
vision.
Through our mainstream children’s education and care centres and our child and family support services
we aim to improve the education, development and wellbeing of the 7629 children we reach each year.
• children’s services are valued and well resourced.
4 SDN Annual Report 2010