Dr Ruth Beecham, CSU coordinator of the Specialist Integrated Community Engagement (SpICE) project, said the event celebrates some of the successes of first SpICE placements.

• Working with Corowa Public School, together with St. Mary’s Primary and Corowa Preschool over six days, four CSU speech pathology and two dentistry students collaborated with the Corowa community to develop promotion and prevention resources to present information to children, parents and teachers about oral health, communication and healthy eating. The CSU students developed a ‘Mouth Matters’ website that has information, links, games and activities relating to what matters in the mouth.The website includes art produced by Corowa children. The CSU students also designed a ‘Mouth Matters’ smartphone app which will be further developed later this year. Students also presented lessons to children at the Corowa schools and preschool on looking after your teeth, including healthy food and brushing. 
• Working from Henty Public School, and  with St. Paul’s Primary School, Henty Preschool, Henty MPS (Residential Aged Care) and Henty Library over six days, four  speech pathology and two dentistry students developed health promotion and primary prevention programs around regular teeth cleaning and oral hygiene. These programs were integrated into the daily timetables of Henty MPS and the schools. The CSU students also developed an information display for the Henty Library to reinforce the oral health message. In addition, and by linking the school and pre-school children with the aged care residents, CSU students have helped produce a series of very amusing picture books illustrated by the children about teeth and oral care. Reviews of these books and their authors will be featured in a weekly series in the local newspaper.
•  An initial SpICE project in Henty in October 2012 saw a group of speech pathology students launch a Book Borrowing Extravaganza in response to local community concerns about children reading. Students helped Year 5 school children from Henty Public School to read stories to preschool children. Following this activity, Henty schools regularly visited the small Henty Library, where children who borrowed a book gained a gold star for their school. This resulted in an immediate increase of borrowing, with an increase in borrowing levels in excess of 300 books per month. This increase has been maintained since October last year, and Hume Library Services have now extended this initiative to libraries in Cootamundra, Gundagai, and Culcairn.

The project was developed in partnership with the federal Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC) and the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD).