Communities

About the community

Robinvale–Euston are neighboring communities on each side of the Murray River.
The RDHS is situated in the community of Robinvale in North West Victoria. With Euston just over the river in NSW.

Robinvale is located 400kms from Bendigo and 500kms from Melbourne. In the Robinvale, 8.6% of the population is aged between 0-4 years, compared to only 6.6% nationally. 43.4% of the Robinvale population were not born in Australia, making us a very multi-cultural community with over 40 different cultures/ languages represented.

Robinvale-Euston and the Let's Read program

We are very excited to be part of the Let's Read program, and to offer parents and children the joy of books. Books and information will be shared with all families with children aged 0-5. The Robinvale Early Years Network, a group of passionate service providers and community members, will lead the program with many local trained in the Let's Read program.
 

Community stories

Let’s Read was introduced to the Robinvale/Euston community in 2017. Ten community members were trained in the Let’s Read program.  For those who have received books over the last 6 months (114) we have had great feedback, and for some families the incentive of the Let’s Read program keeps them coming back to regular appointments. 

The most important aspect we have found is when giving the books to our extremely diverse and multicultural community we have taken the time to talk to the families about the importance of using their own language with their children. Some families want to speak only English to their children to give them a ‘good start’.   We talk about the benefits of being bi-lingual and in some cases multi-lingual. Even though we are supplying books in English we discuss using the book to tell a story and using the book as a guide, for those who have limited English.  

The Robinvale Early Years Network (REYN) meets monthly and the Let’s Read program is an agenda item. We wish to keep the program and the importance of oral language in our children and our community at the forefront of our minds.

September 2018

Sponsors

Our Let's Read program has been funded with the support of the Brotherhood of St Laurence and HIPPY Australia.