sherbrooke – mission accomplished

Me with centre manager, Karen. It's been quite a journey
to save long day care in the Dandenong Ranges, but we're
well and truly there.
 

It was great to attend Sherbrooke Family and Children’s Centre Open Day last weekend. It’s a wonderful centre providing community based long day care in an integrated setting.

The open day was in celebration of the final completion of the project which saw the Upwey Hall integrated with Sherbrooke Family and Children’s Centre.

The centre is significant in the history of my journey into local government, the fight to save the centre first started back in 2004 when the council of the day wanted the centre closed and I was one of the parents fighting to keep it open. Part of the campaign strategy was to run in the local council elections in 2005, and the rest is history.

Claire, the spokesperson the Save Sherbrooke Children's
Centre Campaign and centre chef, Antonio. We are all
immensely pleased with the end result - it's a fantastic facility!

It’s terrific 9 years later to see a thriving, vibrant $7.4million facility providing much needed good quality, community based, long day care to families throughout the Dandenong Ranges.

I have spent many long hours fighting for this centre and it’s great to see it now in all its glory, a great collaboration between all three tiers of government with federal funding of $1.6million, state funding of $0.5million and council funding of $5.3million.

The hall looks great, and it’s great to know it’s now back and available for community use.

The development is a great example of extensive community consultation as well as determination to see the project fulfilled.