Grants of up to $10,000 are now available for non-profit Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services in Victoria to fund professional development and learning opportunities.

the Warrawong Professional Learning Grants are offered by the Early Childhood Graduate Foundation. The funding helps Victoria’s not-for-profit Early Childhood Services undertake professional development as well as support staff training projects and initiatives.

Grants can be used for:

• Offer professional development courses
• Facilitate participation in conferences for staff
• Improve staff qualifications, including covering necessary back-up staff for training time.

The Early Childhood Studies Graduate Foundation was established in 2005 by Early Childhood Studies Graduate Association to support early years work in Australia.

It incorporates the former Forest Hill Early Childhood Foundation (established in 1995) and has a new component based on funds from the sale of Warrawong. The Foundation will continue the work of the founders who were the Melbourne Kindergarten Training College Graduate Association.

Forest Hill was a holiday home for children from socially and economically disadvantaged inner city suburbs. In 1960 it became an emergency residential kindergarten. Forest Hill Emergency Kindergarten was eventually closed and in 1991 the large property, now surrounded by suburban development, was sold by the Graduate Association.n (now known as the Early Childhood Studies Graduate Association).

A portion of the proceeds from the sale was used to establish the Forest Hill Early Childhood Foundation which is now incorporated into the new Foundation. Once a year, the interest from the money invested is distributed in the form of grants to a wide range of early childhood services and projects in Australia.

Warrawong traces its origins to 1937, when Lt. Col. Fred Davey donated his Ware country estate in Ringwood East to the Graduate Association of the Old Kindergarten Training College, Melbourne. The property comprised a former farmhouse and 25 acres of land and was to be used as a holiday home for underprivileged children in inner-city Melbourne. The children were selected by a doctor and their kindergarten teacher. The average stay at Ware was 3 weeks.

Over the years, the programs offered have been adapted and modified to meet the social needs of the times and to keep abreast of the latest beliefs in early childhood development.

Pupils undertaking kindergarten training frequently spent their residence placement time at Ware and most of the costs associated with running this holiday home were covered by charitable donations from JB Were and Son. This association continued until the service was closed. With financial difficulties looming, staff shortages, changing social needs and items in need of refurbishment, the Graduate Association decided to sell the old house and most of the land and develop a new children’s center on the remaining acres.

In 1957, this new center, Warrawong, was established as a modern center and purpose-built to be a holiday home for up to 10 children. Later, local children also participated in kindergarten and long-term daycare sessions.

During the 1960s, a further change occurred when the center began offering emergency care to families in crisis, but the Kindergarten Graduates Association’s financial problems persisted.

Warrawong was considered a leader in the development of early childhood programs. It was run and run by interested community members, parents and qualified kindergarten teachers.

The decision to close and sell the property in 2003 was a difficult one for the Graduate Association, but through the creation of the Warrawong Fund from the proceeds, within the Early Childhood Studies Graduate Foundation, it is hoped that the vision of the first kindergarten graduates Continue. The fund will be used to support training and professional development in the early years field in Victoria.

Learn more about grants please see here. Grant applications can be done here.