A Ministry Highlight
Highlighting one of our incredible ministries across our Faith Family.
Faith Family Early Learning
Coffs Harbour
As an organization, Faith Family Early Learning has been operating for many years, initially beginning in 1996 from the vision of founder Dianne Matthewson. With a strong value for education and a yearning to love and care for others, the daycare service was established.
Over the years, Faith Family Early Learning has been able to maximise their outreach into the community with the aid of the National Quality Framework (NQF) - a national approach to regulation, assessment and quality improvement for early childhood education and care, introduced in 2012. With research showing quality education and care early in life leading to better health, education and employment outcomes later in life, the need for caring, equipping and educating daycare services became evident throughout every community. In this way, Faith Family Early Learning has had a strong ability to outreach to both families and children, both through education and through love and care.
When speaking with the Director of Coffs Harbour’s Faith Family Early Learning, Hazel Parker, she noted that she has received multiple testimonies of the tangibility of peace and love when they’ve attended the daycare from parents, as they would marvel at “the presence that they feel here”. Hazel even remarked that she had seen the ongoing work of this outreach, recalling multiple families who had decided to invest into their children in later years by sending them to Christian-based secondary education due to the foundations developed during their time in early childhood education.
When asked about a vision statement, Hazel referred to the following verse in Malachi:
“He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents…”
Malachi 4:6a [New International Version]
Continuing the original vision, Hazel expressed that through tools like education and equipping, we can empower parents and train staff to be the best parents and carers that they can possibly be. Utilising tools and programs, such as the Circle of Security program, helps to strengthen this vision.
In regards to staff, Hazel had nothing but praise for her team - “Staff are really good at so much, but especially caring for children.” She acknowledged that working with confrontation can be challenging for anyone, especially in difficult or stressful situations, but that she has a value to help empower staff who might be too timid in the moment to fully address people to at least “show them your beautiful smile”; to show that there is still a desire to care and help a person know that they are seen and valued. Furthermore, Hazel commented that a value within her team’s professional development is to learn proper conflict resolution, something she is highly encouraged by - “If our team isn’t loving and being loved, how can they witness to the families they support?”.
Multiple projects are currently nearing completion on-site for Coffs Harbour’s Faith Family Early Learning, including a new Baby Room and a new treehouse in one of the playgrounds. Alongside these projects, Hazel is excited at the opportunity to continue to build and develop a growing team of “lights” and is eager to see what the future holds for Faith Family Early Learning. For more information or to enquire about support, feel free to contact Hazel at hazel@faithfamilyearlylearning.com.au!
