Edge’s ‘Pay It Forward’ Initiative Sets Benchmark in Childcare Education Industry

Edge Early Learning’s internal community connection program, Pay It Forward, has been formally recognised as ‘setting a benchmark’ in early childhood education by the respected Children’s Education and Care Assurance (CECA).

The CECA links providers, service leaders and educators with news, professional learning, recourses, and information that supports quality outcomes for children in Australian Capital Territory (ACT) education and care services.

The recognition resulted following the government’s Assessment and Rating (A&R) which was conducted at Edge Early Learning Charnwood. The centre achieved an ‘Exceeding National Quality Standards’ rating which is a notable accolade in the early childhood industry.

CECA reached out to Edge after discovering the Pay It Forward initiative within the centre’s Program and Practice team in the ACT. Following this, Edge was asked to submit the guidelines for the initiative, which would be published in CECA’s resources publication.

Edge Charnwood’s Pay It Forward program was established after reflecting on how people connect with the community following the ever-changing landscape of COVID.

The centre recognised that doing good for others and contributing to the community supports overall positive mental health and wellbeing. They also valued that busy educators are often time poor, so wanted to provide time within working hours for staff to ‘pay it forward’ in their local community.

They looked at new and different ways to connect with the community and from there developed the internal initiative.

Pay It Forward allows each studio or room team to have up to 2 hours per month, where a team member will be provided an Educator to ‘pay it forward’ to the community. Requests are made from each team and the cover is rostered by the Management Team to enable community connection.

Examples of the Pay It Forward initiative include:

• Donating blood
• Volunteering at the local library or hospital
• Donating clothes and/or items to a charity
• Volunteering at a local primary school
• Walking an elderly neighbour’s dog
• Baking biscuits, gifting flowers or writing a thank you card to the local fire station, nurses ward or police station
• Contributing to a community garden
• Being a parent chaperone on a school excursion or volunteering at the canteen

Edge Early Learning is honoured and proud to have received this recognition thanks to the Charnwood centre and continuously works to improve early childhood education standards across all of its centres.

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