Keeping children safe is our top priority, and it’s why we were proud to support White Balloon Day earlier this month.
White Balloon Day is Australia’s largest campaign dedicated to preventing child sexual assault and is held annually during Child Protection Week. This year Goodstart’s national and state offices joined forces with centres around the country to raise money and awareness, as well as celebrate child safety.
Brad Poynting, National Lead Child Protection, thanked everyone who got involved.
“White Balloon Day is the longest-running child protection campaign dedicated to the prevention of child sexual assault which affects more than 60,000 children every year,” he said.
“We had 44 centres across the country host a White Balloon Day event, raising over $1,800 to date. We’re still tallying the numbers, so we’re expecting this figure to rise.”
“All money raised will go towards helping ensure that child survivors get the specialist counselling they need and preventative education is provided to Australian children.”
Here’s a snapshot of how some of our centres celebrated White Balloon Day:
“We’ve come a long way to improve safety at Goodstart but there’s always more everyone can do to protect our children from harm,” he said.
“There is a body of work underway to create a child protection framework to improve our ability to identify, intervene, respond and prevent instances of child harm from occurring.
“Every role within Goodstart is here to contribute to our vision for Australia’s children to have the best possible start in life, and one of the ways we do this is by being able to recognise indicators that a child is being harmed and knowing what action to take in response to that concern.”
White Balloon Day is Australia’s largest campaign dedicated to preventing child sexual assault and is held annually during Child Protection Week. This year Goodstart’s national and state offices joined forces with centres around the country to raise money and awareness, as well as celebrate child safety.
Brad Poynting, National Lead Child Protection, thanked everyone who got involved.
“White Balloon Day is the longest-running child protection campaign dedicated to the prevention of child sexual assault which affects more than 60,000 children every year,” he said.
“We had 44 centres across the country host a White Balloon Day event, raising over $1,800 to date. We’re still tallying the numbers, so we’re expecting this figure to rise.”
“All money raised will go towards helping ensure that child survivors get the specialist counselling they need and preventative education is provided to Australian children.”
Here’s a snapshot of how some of our centres celebrated White Balloon Day:
- Goodstart Epping High Street organised a variety of activities to mark the day including a bake sale and an afternoon tea with families. They also created a chalk mural in the car park and participated in the White Balloon Day Virtual Balloon race, raising an amazing $668 for the charity.
- Goodstart Eaton educators wore white to show their support for White Balloon Day, and the team also filled the front gardens with white pinwheels which were made by the families and children of the centre.
- Goodstart South Innisfail created learning experiences to help children understand the importance of keeping their bodies safe, discussing with the children discussed what it means to stay safe.
“We’ve come a long way to improve safety at Goodstart but there’s always more everyone can do to protect our children from harm,” he said.
“There is a body of work underway to create a child protection framework to improve our ability to identify, intervene, respond and prevent instances of child harm from occurring.
“Every role within Goodstart is here to contribute to our vision for Australia’s children to have the best possible start in life, and one of the ways we do this is by being able to recognise indicators that a child is being harmed and knowing what action to take in response to that concern.”