ILF Collaborates with Barnardos, Oracle, Aboriginal Land Councils, and more

In order to meet the diverse needs of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation's (ILF) Book Buzz sites in NSW, the ILF strategically collaborates with organisations who can support remote Indigenous Communities. We are proud to work alongisde Barnardos, local Aboriginal Land Councils, Deaf Children Australia, Vision Australia, Oracle and Isuzu UTE Australia throughout NSW.

The ILF recently went on a Book Buzz trip for the first time since pre-covid. The intention was to meet some of our Communities, share resources and news, and celebrate them and their programs that have been supporting local families through Book Buzz resources and programs.

Using ILF’s newest car, the MU-X provided to us by Isuzu, we drove from Sydney to Cobar, Nyngan and Orange.

ILF’s Marketing & Comms Coordinator, Ella, with the Isuzu M-UX car in Cobar

In Cobar, we worked with Barnardos who support local Aboriginal Communities through managing playgroups for parents and little ones.

The ILF has been working with Barnardos in NSW for a year. This collaboration enables us to support individuals and organisations who are also already working hard within their Communities, with far reaching impacts.

Upon arriving in Cobar, we drove over to the Community centre to meet with the Playgroup Coordinator and set up the new kits we were gifting to the playgroup.

We gifted some new ILF books to the playgroup, as well as a new Indigenous storytime mat, and two kits that were created in collaboration with Deaf Children Australia and Vision Australia.

Working with Vision Australia and Deaf Children Australia help us provide access to, and share the joy of reading to all the Communities and families we work with. We are so grateful for the support both organisations have generously provided for these families. These kits support children and families in remote Communities who are struggling with hearing loss and vision impairment.

Jolene, who manages ILF’s Book Buzz program, met a Community member whose child is in the process of being diagnosed with hearing loss. Jolene was able to connect the family with Deaf Children Australia and provide resources the family can take home to use.

ILF's Book Buzz kits encourage literacy through play-based learning

When the playgroup started, we chatted with the parents and little ones about the Community, the playgroup, and any resources they may need or would be interested in, including our Translations Rights and Community Publishing projects.

At the end of the session we gifted everyone some Family Packs for 0-5 and 6-12, with plenty of boxes of beautiful and culturally relevant books and toys to go around!

The next day, we stopped in at Nyngan and met the Playgroup Coordinators from the region at the Barnardos office, to see if any other Communities were eligible for our services. This was an amazing opportunity to sit down with Community and talk about how they could collaborate with the ILF if they are interested.

The little ones were so excited to receive their Book Buzz gifts

For every Community who qualifies for ILF’s Book Buzz program, we work with them throughout the year to provide books and resources to support their playgroups. They can order up to 15 titles and 7 kits from our catalogue. Though the kits remain at the playgroup, the extra books are encouraged to go home with the children and their families.

It is extremely important for children to have access to books from a young age in order to develop important pre-literacy skills, enabling language and vocabulary skills, and connecting children to the world around them. This will ensure they become confident readers.

In order for this to happen, children need to participate in play-based learning. This includes resources that associate with books, and activities that focus on children's developmental areas - and why our Resource kits include carefully curated pieces to support that journey.

Book Buzz is a dynamic and comprehensive resource program that supports Community to equip their children with the skills they need to start big school.

Community members enjoying Book Buzz in Cobar

After Nyngan, our team headed east to Orange. While Orange may not physically be a remote Community, due to it’s support, connection and programing with remote families, reading programs and playgroups, it still qualifies for Book Buzz.

Here we met with the Aboriginal Land Council who invited us to tag along with their afternoon playgroup. We also brought our Book Buzz catalogue, new ILF titles, Book Buzz kits, ILF shirts, an Indigenous storytime mat, and the Vision Australia and Deaf Children Australia kits.

We made sure to bring lots of goodies to give out to Community members!

This playgroup was excited because they were able to keep some of the Family Packs to gift out in the future.

It was an honour and a privilege to be invited into these playgroups to meet the families and work alongside the incredible facilitators.

Everywhere we travelled, people had a lot of questions about our Translations Rights project and we hope that this enables us to translate more popular children’s titles into First Languages.

This trip is the first of many ILF intends to make in visiting our Book Buzz playgroups. For us, it is so important to connect, reconnect and be supportive of the families, places and spaces we work with, to help us create meaningful resources and programs.

The ILF thanks Oracle who have been supporting some of our Book Supply and Book Buzz programs in remote Communities in New South Wales.