In an impassioned speech to councillors at council's ordinary meeting this week, Cr Amy Johnson spoke to a multitude of crises engulfing many of the community's most vulnerable children, noting the urgent need for council "to do more" to dismantle entrenched patterns of disadvantage.
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"We want our children to be compassionate and empathetic to others," she said, referencing some of the noble objectives embedded in council's updated draft 2022-2026 municipal early years plan, which council unanimously adopted that evening.
"But we have kids that basically have to survive first - many families in Ballarat are struggling with material basics.
"In the last week alone, I came across two [families] experiencing significant food security issues. One of them was a lady with a two-year-old, who had only had bread and cereal in the past week. Another mother and her children had just escaped family violence and now had nothing.
That's just two examples in the past week; there are many, many more."
Cr Johnson went on to cite some of the damning figures relayed in the municipal early years plan, which include the more than 700 children in Ballarat who experienced family violence in 2020, the nearly 370 children aged nine years or younger who were homeless in 2018 and the fact that infant mortality in Ballarat is more than double the Victorian average.
"The rates of children who are being removed from their homes in Ballarat has [also] increased in recent years," Cr Johnson said.
"As cost-of-living increases, as inflation increases, our vulnerable and disadvantaged will become more vulnerable and disadvantaged.
"Notwithstanding the incredible plan we've got in front of us, we really need to work out, as a city, how to do more for kids, especially for disadvantaged kids."
The 2022-2026 municipal early years plan, which was drafted in consultation with children, provides a framework to guide the development and delivery of services for families and children, with a view to creating a child-friendly city for all children, regardless of socio-economic status.
To that end, it sets out a series strategies centred on six goals designed to reduce social inequity and improve the long-term health and educational outcomes of Ballarat children.
At the heart of the report lies a recognition that it is within the power of community providers to level the playing field (at least in part) in terms of the opportunities afforded to disadvantaged children by virtue of their life circumstances.
City of Ballarat is a major provider of health, community and early years services for children and family, from kindergarten, childcare and playgroups to community libraries and playgrounds.
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