The Ipswich community is situated approximately 40 kilometres west of the Brisbane CBD. The area covers 1,205 square kilometres. The residential population is 140,181 with 13,226 children aged 0 to 5 years (ABS Census 2006). Ipswich is a fast growing, multicultural city. Residents come from 115 different ethnic backgrounds, speaking 84 languages. As Queensland's oldest provincial city, Ipswich has a rich history. It is renowned for its architectural, natural and cultural heritage.
The Let's Read program has been running in the Ipswich community since 2008. Let's Read is currently being delivered at the Ipswich Library, Ipswich Health Plaza as well as a range of childcare centres, playgroups and community groups.
2015 NAIDOC Celebrations
In July 2015 Ipswich Let’s Read Project Officer partnered with Toowoomba Regional Council ( TRC) Library and Carbul Indigenous Health Service for the 2015 NAIDOC celebrations at the annual Carbal Family Fun Day. Held in Toowoomba’s central Queens Park, families from surrounding communities were provided with free transport to attend the family focused event. Together with sporting and cultural activities, rides and entertainment, a number of local service delivery tents were set up to provide health information and early childhood programs for all families attending.
Let’s Read and the TRC library set up a reading tent for families and young children 0-5 to enjoy. A beautiful sunny day saw over 40 families visiting the brightly decorated Let’s Read reading tent. Sitting on a yarning mat amongst cushions, boxes of books and teddy bears, children, parents and grandparents thoroughly enjoyed reading out loud and choosing their own books to quietly read to each other. Let’s Read resources, book packs, Indigenous family tip sheets, postcards and magnets were given to attending families. Additionally a Let’s Read indigenous picture book pack was provided as a lucky draw prize. Names collected from prize draw entries were then invited to a Library/Let’s Read workshop to be held at the TRC library.
The event provided a wonderful opportunity to talk to Mums, Dads and Grandparents about the importance of reading to their children, and to provide them with some practical suggestions and tips on how to make reading with their children a fun experience for all. Role model reading and Let’s Read indigenous picture books provided families with the opportunity to actively engage in emergent literacy activities with their children. Carbul Indigenous Health Service, through their outreach early intervention, Maternal and Child Health programs and Young Parents Support Workers currently engage their families in promoting emergent literacy development through delivery of the Let’s Read resources.
November 2015 | Michelle Trevino | Let’s Read Project Officer
Ipswich, Toowoomba.
‘Let’s Read with Teddy’ Event
During the first two weeks in September Let’s Read communities across Queensland hosted numerous Early Literacy events to celebrate the success of the Let’s Read 0-5 Early Literacy Program. As part of these celebrations Let’s Read Ipswich partnered with the Red Cross Early Years Health & Well-being Centre, Redbank Plains, to hold a Let’s Read with Teddy, Teddy Bears’ picnic.
Children from the local Playgroups and Child Care Centres brought along their teddies, mums and grandparents to enjoy a morning of books, teddy crafts and dramatic play. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Let’s Read project officer reading two well-loved teddy themed books, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, and Where’s My Teddy, after which the children excitedly play acted going on their very own bear hunt. There was much giggling as the children crawled through ‘swishy swashy’ crepe paper grass, ‘splash sploshed’ through the bucket of water river and even ventured through a ‘hooo whoo’ snow storm of soap bubbles, to find their teddies under a blanket roofed ‘gloomy’ cave. Families experienced a fun and interactive way to engage their children in reading and encouraging a love of books.
March 2015 | Michelle Trevino | Let’s Read Project Officer
Pop-Up Library Fun in Ipswich, July 2014
The Ipswich City Council Regional Library and Ipswich Let's Read recently celebrated the success of the Pop Up Library “Fun for Little Ones 0-5” project that involved outreach library sessions at five community centres across Ipswich.
The Pop-up Library project aimed to engage families in communities that would normally not have had the opportunity to attend a library. Each session included a Let's Read presentation on the importance of the early years, early brain development and how a small amount of time reading with children every day from birth to five years can greatly support school readiness and future well-being.
The play-based read out loud activities attracted a great attendance at all centres. Many of the families attending had never visited a library and were surprised at the fun activities the library could offer.
The Pop-Up Library project provided a wonderful opportunity for the Ipswich Let’s Read project officer to talk to mums and families about the importance of early reading to their children, disseminate Let’s Read book packs, resources, key messages and encourage a love of books.
This project supported the Ipswich Children and Young People's Library’s Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) funded project.
Story by Michelle Trevino
The Let's Read program in Ipswich is sponsered by The Smith Family.
E letsread@thesmithfamily.com.au