We’re excited to unveil to you our new name, new logo, and a new website as part of an extensive rebranding initiative! Over the past several months, we've been working hard to update our brand to better reflect our values, services, and the evolution of our organisation since its founding in 1883.
As of today, TRY Australia is now officially Sparkways and we look forward to continuing to support the children and young people of Victoria with our new name and look. Over the new few months, you'll start to see us updating our branding across all our services and programs.
For now, our Kindergarten services will continue operating under the TRY Australia brand, with a plan to integrate them with Sparkways later in the year. Parents and families will still be able to access our kindergarten listings and other important information at our trycs.org.au domain.
Why the change?
We recognise that life has drastically changed since the organisation began, and that the word “TRY” even though it’s important to us, means something different to today’s audience.
We needed a name that acknowledged our purpose and our past, while giving us a chance to launch a new conversation, that better communicated our spirit. The words 'spark' and 'pathways' have come together as Sparkways, a name that will help to start a conversation with our community about how we can do more.
While this is a significant change, we want you to know that our core beliefs have not changed.
We are still, and will always continue to be, an organisation dedicated to empowering Victoria’s children and young people so they and their communities can thrive. Our values continue to be:
Making it easier for our community
A big reason behind our change is to make things easier for our community.
Instead of having our services spread across different websites and platforms, our new website is designed to make it easier-than-ever to navigate and access important information about our services, offerings, history, careers and even helpful resources for families and mentors.
Now, you'll be able to quickly and easily find out information about our Early Learning, Mentoring and Social Enterprise services all in one site.
Even better, we've made sure to optimise our new website for either desktop, mobile, or tablet so you'll be guaranteed an easy-to-use and intuitive experience no matter what device you use.
What you need to know
As part of our rebrand, we've combined our programs and services under two categories:
- Childcare services and Early Years Management can now be found in Early Learning,
- and Mentoring and Social Enterprises will now come under Youth Services.
To make this transition as smooth as possible, and to help you understand our new changes, we've compiled a list of FAQs for you:
Have your contact details changed?
As part of our rebrand our contact details have changed as follows:
- Our team email has now changed from @try.org.ay to @sparkways.org.au. For example, [email protected] will now be [email protected].
Any emails sent to our old @try.org.au address will be automatically forwarded to our new accounts so that no new emails are lost. Please do make sure to add our new email addresses to your contacts so we can get back to you as quickly as possible.
Of course, you can always get in touch with us through our contact form here.
- To contact us directly, you always call us on our new number at 1300 677 275
- All physical mail and deliveries should be directed to:
45 Yazaki Way
Carrum Downs
VIC 3201
What will happen if my child is enrolled in a TRY early learning centre?
Our early learning services will continue operating as normal with no changes to staffing, policy or procedures.
You may see some changes in the coming months to our forms, signage, and look at our centres, but that will be all. Rest assured, our commitment to the health and wellbeing of your family is as strong as ever and you can still expect a high standard of care at every one of our services.
Our Kindergarten services will continue operating under the TRY Australia brand, with a plan to integrate them with Sparkways later in the year.
Make sure to view our Early Learning page or subscribe to our newsletter for any updates on our childcare and kindergarten services.
Will you still be running a mentoring program?
Our youth mentoring service will continue operating as normal however, after careful consideration, we will be focusing more on our one-to-one program for the next several months.
We are currently developing a number of new initiatives and resources that will allow us to create an even greater impact and support even more youth in need. It's some pretty exciting stuff and we can't wait to show you. Our goal is to relaunch our group mentoring program, among others, in the near future.
If you know a young person who could benefit from a mentor, or are interested in becoming a mentor yourself, feel free to get in touch with is through this form here.
You can stay updated on our mentoring programs by viewing our Mentoring page or subscribing to our newsletter.
What can existing, and new, social enterprise clients expect from this change?
Though the name and look have changed, all our clients can still expect the same high level of professionalism and quality in our services as usual. As a certified social enterprise, we are proud to deliver over $1.8 million in commercial contracts each year and to continue our long history of supporting young people to learn, earn and thrive.
We will continue to offer a range of services in cleaning, labour hire, test & tag and ground maintenance and we look forward to working together with businesses to achieve their social procurement targets and create a positive impact within their community.
Make sure to view our Social Enterprises page for any updates to our services, or hire us today by getting in touch with us.
Does the rebrand mean a change in company leadership?
No, this rebrand does not mean that there will be any change in leadership. You can always learn more about our Executive Team and our Board of Directors by visiting our About page.
What about social media?
Over the next few days, you will notice us updating our respective social media handles to @sparkwaysaus on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter with our new branding.
Part of our rebrand also means a renewed focus on our social media channels, with a goal of continuing to share even more helpful and educational content for our community, along with company updates. Make sure to give us a follow if you haven't already!
What will happen to the old website and URLs?
From today, all our former domains and URLs will automatically redirect to our new website. For example, visiting try.org.au will now automatically redirect you to sparkways.org.au.
As our kindergarten services will be continuing to operate under the TRY Australia brand, you will still be able to access selected pages on our trycs.org.au website.
We encourage you to use our new URL at www.sparkways.org.au or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on our latest news.
As always, if you have any other questions you can always get in touch with us online or email us directly at [email protected]
Moving forward
When our founder, William M. Forster, first started our organisation in 1883 he had a simple idea: to give young people the support and opportunity they needed to reach their full potential. It was a bold idea at the time and his approach and philosophy would go on to pioneer youth welfare work in Australia.
Fast forward to today, over a hundred years later, we are proud to be continuing in his tradition of pioneering and leading the industry in Early Education and Youth Welfare.
Behind the new look we are still the same organisation and team, dedicated to making a difference in the lives and welfare of Victoria's children and young people.