A message from CoLab
The CoLab brand – a partnership between Minderoo Foundation and Telethon Kids Institute – will be retired at the end of this year, however key projects will continue.
This content was originally published by Telethon Kids Institute.
In 2017, Minderoo Foundation funded CoLab for the critically important task of combining evidence with policy and practice to improve the development and learning of children. After three years it has achieved significant success, including:
- Unified national early childhood messaging to raise community awareness of the importance of investing in early childhood (Core Story for Early Childhood Toolkit);
- Provided parents with tailored child development evidence (Bright Tomorrows app);
- Demonstrated the quality return on early childhood investment evidence to support government decision making (Cost of Late Intervention Report, Campbell systematic review of evidence, progress on the whole-child economic index);
- Provided real time access to early childhood government data to support practitioners delivering services (Child Development Atlas);
- Driven government-philanthropy-research early childhood partnership to help those who need it most (Early Years Initiative & Life Course Centre of Excellence);
- Grown the early childhood sector’s evidence-based capacity (Declaration, evidence summaries, seminars, & tool kits).
Minderoo Foundation and the Telethon Kids Institute have jointly agreed to enter into a new working relationship in 2021 and will retire the CoLab brand at the end of this year.
While the CoLab brand is being retired, many key projects will continue. Telethon Kids Institute and Minderoo Foundation will continue to work in partnership to improve the health, development and learning of Australia’s youngest children. We will do this by aligning the respective strengths of our organisations on shared projects. Specifically, Telethon Kids Institute will focus on its role as a research and evidence translation partner, and Minderoo Foundation on advocacy for systems change.
Established by Andrew and Nicola Forrest in 2001, we are a modern philanthropic organisation seeking to break down barriers, innovate and drive positive, lasting change. Minderoo Foundation is proudly Australian, with key initiatives spanning from ocean research and ending slavery, to collaboration in cancer and community projects.
