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For young people who identify as LGBTIQ+, support can be the difference between life and death. Research on LGBTIQ+ young people shows that having at least one accepting adult in their lives can reduce the chance of a suicide attempt by 40 per cent.

Take a moment to think about that in the context of your own life. For me, I can name a number of people who know me — truly know all parts of me — and accept and support me for who I am.

When I was a little girl, growing up in Bankstown our neighbours were an Anglo-Celtic family named the Salisburys. The Salisburys always made me feel so special about my Greek background. They always called me by my Greek name, Violetta. They were curious about our customs and traditions, and participated in as much as possible. They made our differences special and important. Their support and acceptance made me, as a little girl, feel a sense of belonging.

But it doesn’t take a whole family to ensure someone feels seen and accepted. Every individual can make a difference.

This Friday is your chance to show your support for LGBTIQ+ youth by wearing purple. Wear it Purple Day was founded in 2010 in response to a wave of teenagers taking their lives following bullying and harassment due to a lack of acceptance of their sexuality or gender identity.

When our federal parliament voted for marriage equality it sent a strong message of acceptance, support and inclusion for all people who identify as LGBTIQ+. But the figures show we still have a long way to go. The majority of rainbow youth (61%) experience verbal abuse, while almost one in five (18%) experience physical abuse. LGBTQI young people are 12 times more likely to experience depression and up to five times more likely to experience anxiety.

At SSI, we’re hosting morning teas in seven offices across Sydney and regional NSW. Marking this important day is part of a journey we’re undertaking to make our workplaces more inclusive.

That journey began two years ago, when we came to the realisation that, just because our workforce was diverse, didn’t mean it was inclusive. Since then, we’ve been working to ensure inclusion is the norm — that everyone who works at SSI can bring their whole self to work and receive respect, acceptance and support.

We’ve created a gender and sexual diversity working group, developed a gender and sexual diversity inclusive practice training, created a Champion support network across the organisation, and joined Pride in Diversity — an NFP peak body supporting organisations to lift LGBTIQ+ workplace inclusion. We’ve supported staff to attend the Living and Loving in Diversity Conference and the Better Together Conferences. We made sure that when we hosted our own conference, the International Metropolis Conference, we had sessions on the intersectionality of LGBTIQ+ and cultural diversity.

Underpinning this action is our firm belief in dignity, equality and mutual respect — principles that underpin our human rights and that are shared across cultures, religions and philosophies.

This Friday, I’ll proudly wear purple alongside my colleagues to show that I’m there to listen, to accept, to acknowledge and to support. I hope you’ll do the same.

Friendship Gardners after planting the olive tree.

Over four years of nurturing and growth, the Friendship Garden has welcomed many people from diverse backgrounds, languages and abilities who have worked together to build an inclusive and cohesive community.

Since 2015, gardeners have volunteered their time to transform barren, disused land into green space for community, full of life, vegetables, flowers and opportunities for friendships.

Facilitating the building of friendships and skills, gardening days occurred every Thursday, and a playgroup ran every Wednesday. SSI also organised excursions, workshops and external projects in collaboration with other groups.

This project facilitated tremendous social and economic growth in the community. Through social interaction, we saw English skills improved, self-confidence enhanced, support networks established, TAFE certification attained and employment secured.

On 18 July 2019, the last day of SSI’s ownership of the project, the olive tree, traditionally a symbol of peace and friendship, was collectively planted at the Friendship Garden to mark the great achievements made together, and the community’s commitment to continue to support the garden and one another towards a positive, united future.

As part of the handover, SSI hosted a Community Voice consultation where participants could voice their thoughts on how to retain, improve and share the friendship garden with the Auburn community.

Some participant suggestions included opening the garden on weekends and growing more fruit and vegetables that could be sold at markets to raise awareness and funds for the garden.

Two long time garden participants, Lk and Ling, said they will continue to attend the garden and be proactive to give back to the community.

“We have enjoyed attending garden weekly and have gained new experiences and learnt about many things from other garden participants,” they said.

Lk and Ling’s thoughts were echoed by community members at the transition, where many agreed that the Friendship Garden helped them feel like they were not alone, as it connected them with nature, and with each other.

SSI staff and the Auburn community are proud to have built a space where people respect and support each other, work as a team to build something beautiful and sustainable, and communicate and laugh together despite language barriers.

We look forward to seeing the friendships and harvest that is produced during next year’s community-run and owned Friendship Garden.

Homelands stirred audiences at the annual Coffs Harbour Council Refugee Day celebration, Freedom Feast. (Photo: Jay Black)

Marking the first joint initiative of the newly-merged SSI and Access Community Services, the tour travelled over 1500 kilometres across Australia’s East Coast landing in seven different towns in Queensland and New South Wales. 

“I’m thrilled that our first collaboration with Access was so successful,” said SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis. “By joining forces on Homelands, we leveraged the strengths of both organisations, resulting in better outcomes for clients, funding partners and stakeholders in both Queensland and New South Wales.”

From interactive song writing workshops at Loganlea TAFE to a scintillating live performance at Coffs Harbour’s sell-out culinary festival Freedom Feast, Homelands attracted huge audiences with over 2000 locals and people from newly arrived backgrounds coming together to take part in the celebrations. 

CEO of Access Community Services Gail Ker OAM said the tour was important in strengthening community ties and fostering messages of inclusion, in addition to highlighting the artistic talent of many newcomers in Australia. 

“Homelands was instrumental in providing a platform for many newcomers to continue using music as a form of storytelling and expression,” said Ms Ker. 

“The talent and professionalism of the five Homelands artists was exceptional. Being able to produce over an hour of diverse and innovative music in less than 24 hours is only testament to this.” 

The tour was the first major collaborative project between SSI and BEMAC and Ms Ker said she hoped that would signal the start of many more joint creative projects.

“This tour was the first of its kind and I hope we can do it again with SSI next year. Collaborating with SSI meant that we were able to broaden the scope of the tour, taking it all the way from Logan, QLD, down to Sydney, NSW.”

While the tour highlighted the power of two organisations combining, a large part of its success was down to the tireless efforts of the hosting partners in each local community.

“The tour would not have been possible without the help of our hosts in the local communities,” said Laura Luna-Zamora, Project Coordinator of SSI Arts & Culture. “They were essential in engaging the community to come along to each show, helping to create a cross-cultural dialogue and a warm and welcoming space for all who attended.”

“Fridays for Future” protest started by Greta Thunberg.

Greta used her acceptance speech to urge people to recognise the link between climate change and mass migration, famine and war. In listening to Greta speak, I was struck by one particular comment: “I was very angry and sad because of everything that was happening, and I just decided that I was going to do something about it.”

Eight years ago, Greta did not even know what climate change was. Now she is one of the world’s leading advocates on this ecological crisis, after launching a school strike that went viral around the world.

Greta’s work is emblematic of a trend Deloitte highlighted last year in research indicating a growing dissatisfaction with political solutions to complex issues such as immigration and global warming.

We can all learn a lot from Greta’s fearlessness in tackling a crisis creating severe socioecological effects for people who are least equipped to withstand them.

Whether you’re in government, civil society, business — or a school student like Greta — we can all take positive steps to address social justice issues.

Social impact is our shared right and responsibility. At SSI, we work with some amazing values-driven companies that generate benefits that extend beyond their customer base to the broader community.

Through partnerships with these community minded corporate and academic institutes, we create real change in our communities.

One such example is SSI’s Ignite Small Business Start-ups initiative, which supports refugee entrepreneurs to establish or expand a small business. To date, Ignite has supported 130 businesses that now employ 68 other people. Over 60 per cent of our Ignite entrepreneurs are now generating enough income to be economically independent.

This program is entirely funded by SSI and our partners. It epitomises the incredible social change that is possible when the not-for-profit, corporate and academic sectors come together with the wider community.

An entertaining and engaging way organisations and individuals support Ignite is by sponsoring and attending SSI’s Mosaic Gala. This event raises critical funds for both Ignite and our scholarships that help refugees to overcome financial barriers to education. This year, we’re particularly pleased to have award-winning author, artist and comedian Anh Do joining us as a keynote speaker. Click here to get involved.

It is only through cooperation from all corners of our society that we can solve social challenges. Like Greta, we have to be fearless. We can’t just notice the problems in our community — we have to act.

Hub members enjoying the day’s festivities.

The close-knit network of new arrivals and Australian-born Muslim women served food to elders and community members, at the NAIDOC celebration of Baaybain Aboriginal Corporation at Mt Druitt.

Community Hubs is a national program that supports migrant and refugee parents and children as they navigate the education system. The Hub at Colyton Public School is one of the Community Hubs supported by SSI in five local government areas of Sydney.

The women from the Colyton Hub saw the NAIDOC celebration as an opportunity to show their respect to the traditional custodians of the land and learn more about Aboriginal culture.

“I wanted to know more about this culture and come to the festival and share our love because Indigenous people have given me so much respect and they deserve so much respect back,” said Coylton Hub member Ansar 

The women arrived early to set up a stand where they could present the food they had spent days carefully preparing. Biryani, soups, goulash, homemade bread and gorgeous cakes decorated with the Aboriginal flag were all out of the kindness of their hearts.

The food was served to the elders first, and anything left was given to the wider community. Although they believed they would only have enough to feed the Aunts and Uncles, the women outdid themselves, feeding almost 400 people.

“The food just grew in the pot and we were able to feed the whole community,” said Yesim, who offered small cups of rich Turkish coffee to the crowd.

Most of the women were introduced to Aboriginal culture through their SSI Hub leader Lisa Gobo, a proud Darkinjung woman who takes a unique approach in applying a First Nations cultural approach to healing and community connection.

Through yarning circles and deep listening, Lisa and women from the Community Hub have created a safe community space for CALD, refugee and Indigenous women to gather and be heard.

Najla, who spent the day serving elders and community members with food she had cooked, arrived in Australia just two months earlier.  She said she found a deep connection with the Indigenous culture and the women at Colyton Community Hub.

“I really enjoy Aboriginal culture because I like the people and how welcoming they are to their land. They welcome me to their land and now I feel like it is my land too. You give me the strength and it is an honour,” she said.

A live painting workshop led by Ghanaian artist Emmanuel Asante kept the little ones busy at the New Beginnings Winter Festival. Photo credits: Damon AMB.

The Winter Festival was the first instalment of the 2019 New Beginnings Festival and showcased artworks produced ahead of the event at a series of cross-generational and cross-cultural public workshops.

The workshops were facilitated by well-established artists and filmmakers from a refugee background, including Majid Rabet, Ali Al Azeez, Mohammed Alanezi and Elham Marvi.

SSI Arts and Culture Producer Raphael Brasil said the success of the creative workshops reflected SSI’s ongoing commitment to support established artists from a refugee and migrant background.

The workshops provided a platform for established artists of refugee background to transfer their skills and knowledge to a broader audience, he said.

“As newcomers adapt to a new social and cultural environment, the workshops provide opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue, highlighting the concept of ‘place’ and connection to Sydney’s inner west.

“The initiative also allowed local communities to learn something new, all while making a social impact.”

The full-day public program of activities was led by newly arrived artists and featured live performances, including the finale of the inaugural Homelands — an interstate music tour that was produced by SSI in partnership with BEMAC (QLD) and celebrated cultural diversity through the promotion of unity, harmony and inclusiveness.

Multicultural food stalls, including local businesses from Ignite® Small Business Start-ups, IgniteAbility® and Sydney’s well-known Addison Road Street Food Markets, set up shop at the Festival and attracted eager crowds who lined up for a culinary feast.

The Festival was produced by SSI in close collaboration with the Community Refugee Welcome Centre and Inner West Council.

Festival highlights included a mesmerising performance with the soaring vocals and rhythmic beats of world-renowned Uyghur musician Shohrat Tursun, and the fluent delivery of spoken word poet Roje Ndayambaje, who left audiences in a reflective mood.

At the Screening Hub, festivalgoers experienced a series of short films created from the cultural perspective of individuals with disability from CALD backgrounds. The films sought to raise awareness, reduce stigma and build aspiration within communities, promoting an inclusive environment.

The second instalment of the annual SSI New Beginnings Festival will be hosted in Sydney’s iconic Darling Harbour on Saturday, November 16, 2019.

The Festival promotes the talents, vitality and diversity that people from refugee and migrant backgrounds bring to Australia’s creative sector.

The outdoor festival will feature live music, dance performances, kids’ workshops and food and market stalls with an array of international cuisines and cultural handicrafts.

The Bower is an environmental non-for-profit repair and reuse organisation that aims to reducing the amount of goods sent to landfill. 

Their range of services and programs are based on their ethos of reusing and repairing items, with the organisation currently having agreements to collect, repair and rehome unwanted household products from over 20 Sydney metropolitan councils.

One of their initiatives, the House to Home program, was launched in 2016 in partnership with SSI, and aims to assist newly arrived refugees and people seeking asylum. Since its inception, the initiative has provided over 200 families with free household goods. 

Items provided to new arrivals are delivered to their homes by the Bower, and include saved and repaired furniture, white goods, kitchenalia and homewares, worth an average of $245 per family. 

Louise Grace who runs the House to Home project explained that the simple act of welcoming new arrivals to choose their own furniture and homewares to set up their new housing, and make it their home, can go some way to restoring someone’s hope for the future.

“Being able to provide, free of charge, clean, comfortable furniture to somebody starting out in a new country is a great feeling,” she said.

This partnership between experts in the revitalisation of preloved household goods and those dedicated to settlement services has been successful in creating more sustainable communities.

More information on The Bower here. 

Refugee advocate Arash Bordbar has been elected Chair of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN).

APRRN is an open and growing network of more than 340 civil society organisations and individuals from 28 countries committed to advancing the rights of refugees in the Asia Pacific.

As a longstanding member, and a partner since 2017, SSI has supported APRRN’s activities in key areas, including joint advocacy for refugee rights at national, regional and international levels.

Other activities between the affiliated organisations include knowledge sharing and capacity strengthening addressing responses to key protection challenges focused on issues around legal aid, advocacy, refugee law, mental health, gender issues, statelessness, and alternatives to detention.

Mr Bordbar was an integral part of the SSI Youth Collective before receiving the Young Australian Human Rights Award in 2016 for his work with refugee youth. His advocacy work has strong connections with his own lived experience.

“My advocacy started more than 10 years ago, the moment my family and I stepped foot in Malaysia after escaping to safety from Iran,” Mr Bordbar said.

“We found ourselves in a foreign land with no friends and no direction. The process with UNHCR was long and hard, and that was when I started my advocacy to help refugees, like myself, to find meaning in this world.”

SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said achievements like Mr Bordbar’s amplified refugee voices.

“These are the refugee lived experiences that truly illustrate what it means to walk in their shoes, and Arash is a great example of a young person who has referred to his own lived experience to advocate for others,” Ms Roumeliotis said.

“We are excited to continue work with Arash in his new appointment as Chair and to continue our partnership with the APRRN secretariat.”

Mr Bordbar fled his home in Iran at the age of 16 and arrived in Malaysia registering as a refugee with UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur. He spent five years there, where he completed his secondary education online, before being resettled in Australia in May 2015.

“As a refugee in Malaysia during that time, we had no access to education and employment since we were considered illegal immigrants,” he said.

After being resettled in Australia, Mr Bordbar enrolled into university and, in 2016, was nominated to be the Australian delegate to the UNHCR-led Global Refugee Youth Consultation in Geneva.

His involvement led to the establishment of the Global Youth Advisory Council, a mechanism ensuring that youth voices are taken into consideration during the UNHCR decision-making process.

Mr Bordbar has been working with APRRN since 2016 and now sees an opportunity not only to build a strong network but also to help refugees find their voices during moments that matter the most.

“I believe that inclusivity should always be part of the conversations and planning, as we should make sure that every human being has an equal opportunity to be heard and represented,” said Mr Bordbar.

“As the chair of APRRN, I would personally like to make sure that we continue to fight for the rights of refugees and provide support as needed to make sure that people are represented equally and fairly. Together we can make it happen.”

We’re living in a world where every minute 25 people are forced to flee their homes. New figures from UNHCR show that by the end of 2018, 70.8 million people globally were displaced from their homes – representing the highest level since the UN refugee agency began 70 years ago.

Finding a way to humanely and practically respond to this flow of human traffic is quickly becoming a key challenge of our times.

One of the ways we can do this is to share best practice examples with our peers in other countries, something I recently did in a presentation on refugee entrepreneurship at the Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations Conference in Greece.

SSI’s Ignite® Small Business Start-ups initiative has a proven, transplantable model that can benefit populations in different demographics and countries, like Canada where this initiative is currently being rolled out to refugee and migrant entrepreneurs with great success.

I was honoured to have the chance to share ideas and knowledge SSI has gained while running Ignite®. While I was in Greece, I also had the opportunity to visit a refugee camp and meet with refugees, staff, volunteers and representatives from the Greek government and the International Organisation for Migration.

The camp itself sits in an abandoned seaside resort in Myrsini in western Greece, where huts have been restored to accommodate 300 Syrian families. They have access to WiFi, informal Greek classes, local schools or onsite education, and vouchers to buy fresh produce for their meals.

Seeing the camp made me feel very proud of my Greek heritage; however, the organisers were very frank in describing this camp as a best practice example. The situation is more dire on the islands of Chios – where my own family is from – and Lesbos, where international organisations like Oxfam have condemned the inhumane conditions of refugee camps.

I was heartened, however, to see how welcoming the local community was to refugees. The biggest issue for them is that Greece is seen as an interim country on the way to Italy, Germany or France. The Greek government is increasingly encouraging people to become citizens and is working to progress integration policies and processes.

The Diversity Conference itself was themed around border crossing narratives and learning from the refugee experience and examined the concept of diversity as a positive aspect of a global world and a globalised society. It recognised that diversity is in many ways not only reflective of our present world order but also of the diversity in communities and government policy, such as racism, conflict, discrimination and inequity.

SSI is also an active participant in international forums hosted by UNHCR, where we share lessons from Australian resettlement and elevate the voices and experiences of people who have come to our country as refugees.

Refugee voice was a central theme for a meeting of the UNHCR’s Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR) Working Group on Resettlement earlier this year. During the meeting, it was wonderful to see our international peers speak about how motivated and inspired they have been by the powerful work the Refugee Council of Australia is doing to elevate refugee voices.

One of the prevailing themes of these discussions was that ‘refugee’ is a situation and not something you are born into. Being a refugee is not an endless notion. It is a fleeting time that reflects one aspect of a multifaceted identity.

To that end, a Refugee Advisory Group has been formed to invite views and opinions from resettled refugees on all aspects of integration into local communities, which is fed on to ATCR and UNHCR consultations to help shape the future of resettlement.

Self-representation is always a priority during SSI’s international advocacy work as this enables people from refugee backgrounds to advocate for their communities.

At a time when the UN has called for responsibility-sharing to support refugees around the world, I am proud to say that SSI has taken the initiative to engage in international dialogue, participate in the development of the Global Compact on Refugees, collaborate with our peers in other countries and advocate for innovative solutions to refugee and migration challenges.

Dilnigar Alim posed in traditional Uyghur dress.

Now, with the support of SSI Ignite® Small Business Start-ups, Ms Alim has confidence that she can use her unique abilities to share her culture with her new home and build a successful business around traditional dance.

Ms Alim’s passion for the arts can be traced back to her childhood, being raised in a proud artistic Uyghur family in the region of East-Turkestan, also known as Xinjiang — an area tightly controlled by China.

The Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims from the Central Asian region. The largest Uyghur population lives in China’s autonomous Xinjiang region, in the country’s north-west. They are also one of several persecuted Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, including the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz and Hui.

From 2000 to 2005 while in East-Turkistan, Ms Alim studied professional Uyghur dance and performance in Xinjiang Art Institution.

She continued to hone her skills as a dancer for a further four years working for Bing Tuan Music, Dance and Theatre Group until she arrived in Australia in 2019.

When she first arrived in Australia, Ms Alim was supported by SSI employee and Uyghur community member Zulfia Erk.

Ms Erk was quick to recognise Ms Alim’s ambition and talent and suggested she get involved in the Ignite® program.

“As a professional Uyghur dance performer who was not born in Australia, I find it very challenging to find opportunities to succeed,” Ms Alim said.

“But, with the support of Ignite®, I see a great future ahead.”

Ignite® taps into the existing skills, knowledge and experience that refugees bring and supports them to navigate and succeed in the complex Australian business environment.

Entrepreneurs are assisted by an Ignite® enterprise facilitator, who establishes a system of resource support around the entrepreneur, including industry experts, marketing professionals, financial managers and business mentors.

Ms Alim said that Ignite® provided her with opportunities but, more importantly, equipped her with insight into details to help start her business, including knowledge of the appropriate location for her business, an understanding of financial compliance and marketing best practice.

“Ignite® and its friendly staff members have been helping me a lot with my career goals and dreams over the past couple of years,” she said.

“There is nothing impossible to achieve when I have Ignite® standing right next to me throughout my journey.”