Our program was part of a larger initiative, founded by the government, with the core aim to address the educational needs of children with autism.
Our centre is the only centre in Victoria which is part of this initiative, and our mission is really about three main aims, there are three things that we are, that we are trying to do here. 
First one is providing individualised early intervention to young children with autism, evidence-based intervention. The second one is advancing knowledge, undertaking research through our partnership with different research institutions, and the third aim is to disseminate knowledge.  
Along with our mission, we also have a set of values that we agreed on that we incorporate into our everyday practice. Some of the values that we see as key to our success are team work and open communication. 
When you’re working with families, it’s important that you team with them to ensure that the service that you are delivering them is consistent with their values, and also with their goals. As staff, we readily respond to feedback from both colleagues, and from families to ensure that we are delivering our service to the highest possible standard. 
Another one of our values is learning through play. We’re based within a long day care setting and along with the National Quality Framework; we implement a specialised intervention program designed for young children with autism, which is called the Early Start Denver Model, or the ESDM. The ESDM is both play and relationship based, so basically, this means that the adult co-constructs activities with the child based on their interests and on their play, and then embeds the child’s goals into these activities.
Another one of our values is research and building knowledge. The Early Start Denver Model is an evidence-based model, so the outcomes of this model have been recorded in a number of different academic journals. We were one of the first centres worldwide to deliver this model in a group setting, so we’re committed to measuring this. 
When you walk into our centre you don’t realise that you’re walking into an autism-specific centre because our play rooms are set up to look extremely naturalistic and play-based, and that’s the way we want them to look.
The research tells us that children with autism require a minimum of 15 hours per week of intervention, and we provide this in our program with a high staff to child ratio.   
Each child’s individualised program is developed by a transdisciplinary team, and our team includes speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists, teachers, and our early childhood professional staff. 
We collaborate closely with the families to ensure that the work we’re doing in the playrooms is meaningful and that it’s being generalised into the home environment.  
Our family’s experiences are extremely positive, um, we feel incredibly lucky that our son is able to attend the centre, he’s happy, he’s engaged. 
As a parent, you feel incredibly supported at the centre; each family is assigned a key-worker who’s responsible for, um, assessing your child, putting together your child’s developmental goals and really being the, the key point of contact. 
The Victorian Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre is a part of the La Trobe University Community. Like the university, we are focused on innovation and excellence within the field of Autism Spectrum Disorders. 
It is because of our amazing staff, our specialist teachers, our early childhood professionals, and our allied health staff, that we’re being recognised as a leader in the delivery of the Early Start Denver Model, the ESDM, within a group environment. 
It is because of our commitment to evidence-based practice that we have a researcher on our team. This researcher works closely with Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, and regularly publishes papers on our research in peer reviewed journals. 
Over the next few years, we’ll continue to work strategically to ensure that we are able to offer sustainable practices that allow parents of young children with autism to access high quality intervention for their children.