The Karuah Hub program is funded by the Department of Social Services.

The Karuah Community Hub is a community led program that provides prevention and early intervention for Aboriginal children within the community. The project enables Firstchance to provide culturally appropriate early childhood intervention support to Aboriginal families in a way that is acceptable and accessible to the community. We work alongside the community to provide inclusive practices within a natural setting, in order to build capacity, improve outcomes for children and enhance parent-child relationships, to close the gap.

Firstchance has been operating in the Karuah area for over 6 years and has developed strong and trusted relationship with the Aboriginal Community, in addition to forming community partnerships and linkages with complementary services to meet the needs of the community. We work alongside other services such as Awabakal Medical Services and Birra-Li Aboriginal Maternal and Child Health Services, PaL program to engage with the families within their community on a weekly basis to ensure the prosperity and wellbeing of these children and families.

The Karuah Hub is responsive to the needs of the community. Services include:

• Weekly supported playgroup
• Speech Therapist supports children with the playgroup and at Karuah Public School
• Specialist Educator provides early childhood intervention supports at Karuah Preschool
• Home work centre that runs two days per week
• Parent training and education