Maternal child health services were the first service made available followed by supported play groups, an immunisation clinic, new parents play group and kindergartens. 

Horsham Rural City Council human services manager Mandi Stewart said the new hub has been well-received by families. 

“People are enjoying the new space. It’s been lovely for people living locally who can walk the centre – some children are riding their bikes to kinder with their parents and they park them outside the centre,” she said. 

However, she said it was still early days for the hub and there was a greater vision to activate the area in the upcoming months.  

“The hub location has opportunities to open up Dudley Cornell Park and the community garden behind it for kinder to use. As they move into the next couple of terms, they will be looking to use those areas,” she said. 

“We are looking at how we can further activate the hub in regards to getting allied health services and other services available to families who access the hub. 

Related: Kalkee Road Children’s and Community Hub open its doors | Video​

“Next term we have new things coming including the toy library, which opens in August and the aboriginal playgroup, the black cockatoos are coming in one-day a week from July.” 

Ms Stewart said having multiple services available in one location was a great benefit to the community. 

“It makes people more aware of what services are there and makes it easier for them to access – parents can drop their kids off at kinder and then take an infant to an appointment,” she said. 

“In terms of the various staff members on site, they are able to have easy conversations with each other. A maternal child health nurse referring families to playgroup can walk over and introduce them and vice versa.

“Three of our maternal child health rooms are together and it’s a good chance to share practices and get a secondary consult if there are issues.”