How our journey began
Meet Christina. Christina has spent over 30 years immersed in early childhood education — as a teacher, a centre owner, and a leader shaping how educators understand and support children. But the story behind Outreach Education isn’t just a professional one. It’s personal.
Our journey began with three-year-old Lucah, shimmying up downpipes to sit on the roof of his early learning centre. Being sat on by adult educators to restrain him after a meltdown. Primary school brought new challenges — Lucah on the school roof, in the middle of the playground fort in the pouring rain. By the end of Term 1, the firefighters were on a first-name basis with him. Running from whatever he didn’t want to do. Lashing out at teachers and peers alike when he was overwhelmed. Being rugby-tackled by SES after he absconded on a school excursion, running full tilt toward a hundred-metre cliff drop.
Lucah is my second-born son, and he really introduced me to the world of neurodivergence and advocacy. My teaching degree hadn’t prepared me for children like him — and it certainly showed me where the flaws in our systems were.
I have six children. All of them are neurodivergent in some way. Two have epilepsy. One has type 1 diabetes. That lived experience — the appointments, the advocacy, the systems that were never quite built with my children in mind — has given me something no textbook or degree could: a real, ground-level understanding of what families are navigating, and what’s missing.
Over three decades in education, including running my own centres, moving countries to seek adequate support, then states to seek adequate medical care, I watched the gap keep widening. There’s meaningful support available for young children — and rightly so. But as those children grow into young people and adults, that support often disappears just as life gets more complex.
Outreach Education was founded to close that gap. Holding a Bachelor of Education and a certificate in Neurodivergence Coaching, Christina brings together formal expertise and hard-won personal experience to support neurodivergent children, young people, and adults — and the families, educators, and communities around them — at every stage, not just the early ones.
Her commitment to this work was recently recognised with a nomination for Local Business Person of the Year — a reflection of the depth and dedication she brings to every family and educator she supports.
Christina’s story is one of thousands - but every family’s journey looks different. If your ready to talk about yours, we’d love to listen.