Our recently completed Early Parenting Centre in Wyndham is the first of our ten EPC’s for the Victorian Government to have opened its doors late last year. Key design principles include a welcoming and comforting environment for the community with an emphasis on providing a home-like setting for its occupants. The integration of indigenous art within the landscape and building was fundamental in providing a sense of cultural safety for the Aboriginal community. Materials chosen were inspired by nature with a colour palette reflected in local landscapes and contributing to the home-like feel.
The EPC’s will deliver health and community services with a focus on maternal and child health in regional areas of Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo and in growing metropolitan areas of Casey, Frankston, Wyndham and Whittlesea to support local families. Each Early Parenting Centre comprises 10 residential stay bedroom suites, 4 day stay rooms, multipurpose rooms for group learning and activities, allied health consulting rooms, office and meeting spaces, and education spaces for training and teaching.
The centres provide targeted services and programs that aim to enhance parent-child relationships and to support parents in achieving their parenting goals in areas including sleep and settling, child behaviour, and parent and child health and wellbeing. Brand Architects developed a template design to establish a standardised model of care which can be consistently applied across the state-wide program for all new EPC sites, now and in the future.