Yalbillinga Boori Day Care will have more space thanks to Start Strong Grant Funding

Yalbillinga Boori Day Care Centre, located in Cowra, a small town in the Central West region of New South Wales will be able to offer an expanded preschool program moving forward, thanks to $230,063 in funding to purchase a demountable building. 

The funding, provided by the NSW government’s Start Strong Capital Works Grants Program, will also allow Yalbillinga to take on 15 more preschoolers, a measure which Yalbillinga spokesperson Julie Kemp said “has been years in the making.”

Speaking with local publication Cowra Guardian Ms Kemp said “I’m ecstatic, you’ve got no idea how excited I am.”

Currently preschool is conducted in another demountable building, which is a shared space amongst a variety of community groups and organisations, making sustained use of the space a challenge. 

“Sometimes it can be disruptive and we have to work around everyone else cause we have quite a few other organisations that use the room,” Ms Kemp told Cowra Guardian.

The funding was applied for by parent Trilby Ryan, who’s children attend the program. 

Steph Cooke, Member for Cootamundra, visited the site last week to present a cheque for the funding, highlighting that Yalbillinga was the only preschool in her electorate to receive funding under this round of the Strong Start program.

Cowra Guardian quoted Ms Cooke as saying she was excited and relieved to see the service achieve something which has been “on the wishlist” for some time. 

“Yalbillinga does a wonderful job and this has been a long time coming and I can’t wait to see it come to life.”

To access the original coverage of this story, please see here.