Family and community centres can feel safer for children and their parents than clinical environments. They are typically more accessible for the local community, they are warm and welcoming, children are free to play and socialise with other kids, parents are able to talk to their peers, and health and early childhood specialists are also able to offer guidance. This approach naturally lends itself to taking a much broader, whole-of-life view of a child, beyond a clinical diagnosis.

In this installation, the dark canopy at the top symbolises the health and education systems, which are difficult to navigate and peppered with complex language that has little meaning to the parents, let alone children, that it concerns. Below this is a bright, colourful entanglement that this represents the play, the mess and the connection of the new model of care. Arms and hands symbolise the importance of human connection and the literal “reaching out” of the system. People from the centres involved (including staff, parents and children) are also represented to reinforce the critical role that individuals play in making this community thrive.