SDN had a strong and longstanding connection with disability services for children in Lithgow, in Central Western NSW, which we can track from 1985 until May 2019. In fact, one of the first early intervention teachers employed there was SDN’s long-serving CEO, Ginie Udy.

In 1985, SDN received funding from the Commonwealth government to establish a ‘Special Needs Unit’. Based in SDN Linthorpe Street, Newtown, the Unit provided early intervention for individual children with disabilities who were attending SDN centres.

The Early Intervention Program (EIP) then evolved out of the Special Needs Unit and was established in 1989. 

Caption: (L-R) Jill Stephens and Ginie Udy teaching at the Lithgow Early Intervention Program in 1986.

Lithgow’s EIP begun in 1985 when Lithgow Public School identified a need for an early intervention program for children with disabilities in the community before they reached primary school. Funding secured from the federal government provided for an early intervention teacher Ginie Udy, subsequently SDN CEO, and Jill also Stephens, a teacher’s aide.

An early description of Lithgow’s EIP noted: “the service aimed to support young children with disabilities in Lithgow, to assess and provide a tailored program for each child to build gross motor skills in a play-based environment. LEIP operated out of the Lithgow Public School, initially for three days a week, as well as having the flexibility to offer home visits”.

You can read more about the early beginnings of SDN LEIP Early Childhood Links in this article here.

On 27 January 2014, LEIP joined the SDN family as SDN LEIP Early Childhood Links. CEO Ginie Udy was at the opening and was thrilled to see the program she had started in 1985 was still growing strong and now under the auspices of SDN.

However, in 2019 the service was closed, after changes to SDN’s service provision due to the introduction of the NDIS, thus ending nearly 40 years of high-quality services.

—Ben Woods
Archivist

Caption: LEIP family day picnic at Lithgow in 1987.