SSI Youth Employment and Social Enterprise Manager Leanne Hung with Hills Shire Mayor Dr Michelle Byrne.
The Staples Bag vouchers were funded by the Hills Shire Council in support of financial inclusion practices, and were gifted to local community members in need.
In launching the event, Baulkham Hills Mayor Michelle Byrne noted the positive impact services like The Staples Bag had on the community.
“Initiatives like The Staples Bag not only help those less fortunate in our community with their basic needs, but also provides work experience, training and networking opportunities for those having difficulty securing employment or needing a leg up. It is about empowering those in our community and reducing social isolation,” said Mayor Byrne.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of Hills Community Aid Mici Beer highlighted the importance of raising awareness of services like The Staples Bag and helping people in the community make better financial decisions.
“We welcome The Staples Bag into our community as a promoter of financial inclusion, and we recognise that by inviting The Staples Bag into the community we are stretching people’s financial agility,” said Ms Beer.
SSI Youth Employment and Social Enterprise Manager Leanne Hung said The Staples Bag supported people to meet their most basic needs.
“Being able to afford rising rent and household bills should never come at the expense of nutritious food. The Staples Bag helps individuals and families stretch their dollar further so that they’re able to afford fresh and nutritious groceries,” Ms Hung said.
Manning The Staples Bag’s stall at the launch were a number of people engaged in SSI’s Youth Placement Pathways Program (YPPP), which provides work experience opportunities for young people experiencing unemployment. YPPP participant Laura Palozzi came across SSI when she moved to Sydney from Tamworth and was put in touch with her local job network provider.
“SSI gave me the opportunity to join the YPPP program to gain valuable work experience. The program is great if you have no work experience and are looking for a step up,” said Ms Palozzi.
SSI Youth Placement Pathways Program (YPPP) participant Laura Palozzi.
The Staples Bag pop up shop will feature at Hills Community Aid in Baulkham Hills every second Friday.
On the flip side, we see worrying instances of race-baiting and media sensationalism that target minority groups, like the recent storm that broke over Victoria’s African-Australian community.
Newspaper headlines in January were dominated by reports of an escalation of activity involving so-called “African gang crime” in Melbourne. Various politicians weighed in on the issue, which gave plenty of material for news-short journalists over the traditionally quiet summer reporting period.
Much of this coverage was overhyped and sensationalised. In at least one instance, the outlet reporting on an African “gang flare-up” had actually instigated the conflict in question.
The political dog-whistling and hysterical media coverage ignored the facts — and the experts. Victorian Police have repeatedly hosed down reports of a crime crisis and have in fact called on media to stop using inflammatory language like “gangs”.
According to police, what we are actually seeing is an increase in public disorder and misbehaviour — some of which involves youth from the African-Australian community.
Proportionally, Sudanese immigrants are over-represented in crime statistics (people born in Sudan make up just 0.1 per cent of Victoria’s total population while they make up 1 per cent of the offender population).
Yet the majority of offenders in Victoria remain people born in Australia (nearly 72 per cent). And the overall crime rate in Victoria is actually declining. But you wouldn’t know that from perusing the headlines published across the country over the past month — headlines that ignore the shades of grey in this complex situation.
The Victorian Police have called for calm, pointing to the growing racially motivated threats being made against members of the African community.
Leaders from Melbourne’s Sudanese community have also come out in force for their community. One particularly positive outcome has been the spontaneous reclaiming of the Twitter hashtag #africangangs. The hashtag began trending nationally, filled with images that counter the narrative about violence and gangs — images of celebrations, family gatherings, university graduations, professionals at work and other happy moments involving African-Australian community members.
What has been overlooked in the metaphorical dogpiling on the African-Australian community is the multitude of benefits multiculturalism has brought, and continues to bring, to our country.
Just consider new research from CGU showing that one in three Australian small businesses is run by people who migrated to our country. This equates to at least 620,000 migrant-owned businesses across the country, employing around 1.4 million people.
Or look at SSI’s Community Innovation Fund. In January, we allocated $50,000 to fund six projects that support refugee communities in south-west Sydney.
What is unique about this funding allocation is that all initiatives selected are driven by the communities they support. An intensive consultation process was undertaken with the community to directly inform the fund’s selection criteria. It aimed to understand the community’s hopes and challenges and provide a narrative about what kind of community its members want to live in.
Take, for example, the Chaldean League of NSW’s technology support project. This aims to help newly arrived refugees to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence to navigate online forms in English for services that are crucial to their everyday lives, such as online banking or Centrelink.
The project was developed by Raghda Aziz, a volunteer caseworker with the Chaldean League. Raghda arrived in Australia in 2011 with her family after fleeing persecution in Iraq. She has seen how simple mistakes on forms can affect people’s lives and is now known for her expertise and willingness to support newly arrived members of the community.
Raghda is not a unique example. While the everyday social, economic and cultural contributions new arrivals make to our communities do not make the headlines, they do form a critical part of our country’s multifaceted multicultural identity.
Captured is Muthana one of the regular Friendship Garden’s gardeners and his daughter.
Over the past three years, SSI has welcomed people from many diverse backgrounds to the Friendship Garden at Auburn Centre for Community.
The existing garden brings together locals for community gardening, horticulture courses and community development initiatives, however it’s limited in what it offers to people living with disability.
The sensory garden will foster community cohesion and inclusiveness, enabling children of all abilities to learn and express themselves freely.
The garden features were chosen through a consultation with the garden designers and a large group of children. The design incorporates frog ponds, spiralled textured paths and sand pits that simulate participation in sensory based play.
SSI’s disability and settlement programs will connect local families to the garden and engage established networks to offer therapeutic intervention, play-based activities and community development initiatives.
SSI has engaged a diverse group of community participants at its Friendship Garden, including participants like Muthana who are passionate about all things gardening.
Muthana is originally from Iraq and came to Australia on a humanitarian visa from Syria. As he is missing a hand, his first touchstone with SSI was via the Ability Links NSW program, which supports people with disability, their family and carers.
Muthana had been a horticulturalist by trade back in Iraq and was referred to SSI’s short course in horticulture as he was eager to re-qualify his skills here in Australia. He began the course last July to help ignite his own business.
“SSI has helped me complete my study in an activity that truly motivates me, and I have been able to form many new friendships in the garden while improving my English,” Muthana said.
Muthana attends a weekly garden session, where a group of gardeners maintain the garden together, followed by a shared multicultural lunch. After lunch they reconvene for an English class run by a garden volunteer who taught English at ‘Read, Write and Spell’, a pre-literacy course for adult asylum seekers and refugees in Ultimo.
Diana Nguyen, SSI Community Engagement Practitioner, has facilitated the onboarding of participants like Muthana into the Friendship Garden and said that it makes a massive difference to the integration of newcomers into local communities.
“Initiatives like our Friendship Garden allow new community members to do something therapeutic like gardening and form new friendships whilst simultaneously improving their English literacy,” Ms Nguyen said.
The construction of the sensory garden will commence in 2018, and once completed will launch with a grand opening and celebrations.
SSI staff captured with gardeners at the Friendship Garden where the new sensory garden will be installed.
We’re all so busy at this time of year that it can be hard to find the head space to pause and reflect on the year that has passed — what we’ve achieved, what we’ve left undone, what has changed in our wider world.
Global displacement continued over the course of the year as civil wars in places like Yemen and Syria drove families from their homelands. Closer to home, we have seen the growing Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, while conditions for refugees in Manus Island have deteriorated following the closure of the offshore refugee processing centre.
In reflecting on the year that has passed, it can be difficult not to dwell on the families who are still in exile from their homelands or people like the Rohingya, who remain trapped in a precarious limbo of statelessness.
But we also have much to be thankful for — and it’s those things that my mind comes back to when I’m tempted to believe the world is a darker place at the end of 2017 than it was at the start.
On a professional level, there’s a lot to be thankful for. In 2017, SSI won many new contracts to deliver programs that will expand our work with individuals and families who are at a point in their lives when they’re experiencing a vulnerability.
On a personal level, I’m thankful for the successes the year has brought me. When my colleague nominated me for the Telstra Business Women’s Awards, the idea of being selected as a state finalist seemed way outside the realm of possibilities — let alone that I would be named the 2017 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year.
I’m incredibly grateful for the career and personal growth trajectory that has taken me from the daughter of migrants, growing up in Sydney’s western suburbs, to being selected among my peers from across the country for national recognition that will give me a platform to highlight the issues faced by newly arrived communities.
As a member of the wider Australian community, I’m thankful that we are finishing 2017 in a country where all people now have the right to marry the person they love, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
The evening after the ‘yes’ result was announced, as I watched footage of Sydneysiders celebrating the win in Prince Alfred Park, embracing each other and dancing to John Paul Young’s Love is in the Air, it was hard to feel anything but optimistic for our shared future.
As the year wraps up, I encourage you too to dwell on those bright spots from across 2017. For all the lows, the year has brought with it many highs. It is those that I feel truly thankful for.
While this time of year is replete with happy gatherings of friends and family, it’s worth remembering that not everyone is fortunate to have their loved ones nearby. Some people are separated from family by war. Others, for one reason or another, lack the critical social support systems that many of us take for granted.
During the festive season, I encourage you to reach out to these neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances. Invite them to share a meal or to pop in for a cup of tea. Small acts of kindness can have a big impact on people, especially those who are feeling lonely or isolated.
Have a safe and happy holiday season.
CEO Violet Roumeliotis
“I’m glad that I’m here. I had to leave my family and I’m alone, but I’m happy I’m here. I feel freedom in Australia,” she said. “The first friends I made were Aussies. They’re just regular people but they’ve helped me. They also learned how to say ‘hello’ in Arabic!”
Despite arriving in Australia with no English, Ms Al Askar has already found paid employment in a games store. She is also studying English with the aim of resuming her work as a graphic designer.
Coming to Australia by herself posed a number of challenges for Ms Al Askar — the first of which was trying to get by on Centrelink payments while she found work.
“SSI helped me to figure out how to use this payment for the amount of time I needed and they supported me while I learned that,” she said.
SSI’s Humanitarian Settlement Program, which supports refugees through the initial stages of settlement, takes a client-centred approach to case management that is tailored to the needs and strengths of individuals, including women living without family members.
“SSI understood my situation. I’m alone here,” Ms Al Askar. “When I first arrived, I didn’t know any English. Now step by step, I’m starting to speak English. I now have friends from all different countries and cultures too. I talk to them in English too. Sometimes I don’t understand, but I try different sentences to make my friends understand me. We try our best to understand each other.”
Ms Al Askar’s long-term aim for life in Australia is to improve her English and “just to be myself”.
“I lost my family. I lost my job. I lost myself. When I needed to make a goal for my new life in Australia, I needed first to learn who I was. It’s a simple goal. I want to refresh myself and build my new identity,” she said.
“I see in Australia a lot of examples of people from different cultures and countries who’ve spent 10 years here learning English and new skills and they’re now helping me to learn English. One day, I hope to be like them.”
The federal government recently selected SSI as the regional NSW provider of the new Humanitarian Settlement Program (HSP), which supports refugees from the moment they arrive at the airport until they are established in the community.
SSI will expand operations to support its work in regional areas, including in Coffs Harbour, where Federal Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker MP launched the new SSI office on Friday December 1.
SSI HSP Manager, Yamamah Agha, said the organisation was committed to partnering with the local community and services to support refugees through the early days of life in Australia.
“At SSI, we recognise the critical role the community plays in successful settlement. Community members help new arrivals to feel welcome in Australia and to build the sense of belonging that becomes a foundation for their new lives here,” she said.
“Community support can take many forms. It might be volunteering, offering a friendly smile at the supermarket or holding an event to welcome new arrivals. Only by working in partnership can we hope to support refugees to reach their full potential in Australia.”
An SSI refugee settlement team is now also set up in Newcastle, and next year, SSI will launch an Armidale office to cater for the newly announced settlement hub in the regional city.
Ms Agha said settling refugees in regional areas had dual benefits for both refugees and the communities welcoming them.
“New arrivals make important cultural and social contributions, such as reviving regional schools and countering population decline,” she said.
“Refugee resettlement also has economic benefits. With the population growth, comes an increased need for teachers, doctors and other services to support an expanding community. In the Victorian town of Nhill, for example, the net monetary gain of resettling 160 refugees over a five-year period exceeded $41 million.”
Click hereClick here for contact details for SSI’s new regional offices.
Plenary panel with image on screen “Redfern All Blacks football team at Casino”
(Andrew Jakubowicz, photographer, 1969).*
Among an array of impressive gigs, Jakubowicz was a historical advisor on the SBS series, “Immigration Nation” in 2011, he developed the concept for “The Great Australian Race Riot” for SBS in 2015, and Making Multicultural Australia.
An added layer to the celebrations was the book launch of Cyber Racism and Community Resilience: Strategies for combating online race hate, which was co-authored by Jakubowicz and his collaborators.
Jakubowicz’s own family refugee journey from Lodz in Poland via Lithuania during WWII can be traced via “The Menorah of Fang Bang Lu” (with Tatiana Pentes, multi-media designer). This strong family lineage is certainly cornerstone to his lifetime fascination and academic inquiry into topics of ethnicity and multiculturalism.
The two-day conference encapsulated a wide range of plenary sessions with Australia’s critically acclaimed and multidisciplinary academic rockstars.
Dr. Christina Ho, Senior Lecturer & Discipline Coordinator from Social & Political Sciences at UTS, reflected on the far-reaching impact of Jakubowicz’s research and teaching, which was evident in the forty presenters who spoke on topics from neoliberal multiculturalism through to Hazara entrepreneurs.
“We had around 100 people come together to celebrate the career of our friend and colleague, Andrew Jakubowicz and also had keynotes from SBS’s Anton Enus and community workers Paula Abood and Amrit Versha.” Dr. Ho said.
Jakubowicz himself reflected on how he was moved by the conference and how the experience prompted insights on his fifty year career in academia.
“I was very grateful for the care and thought my colleagues had invested in thinking through how their contact with me had been of help on their own journeys. I was struck by the link people made between the scholar and the activist, that knowledge has to be made available for social betterment,” Andrew Jakubowicz said.
Anton Enus from SBS opened the first plenary with a talk on the risk of fake news in today’s digital media landscape, and the need for trusted people with expert knowledge in fostering credible debate.
Paula Abood discussed the rise of neoliberal multiculturalism and how this shift has both decimated the political culture in the multicultural NGO sector and emptied anti-racism discourse from multicultural politics.
Other standout sessions included one on cyber racism that explored innovative anti-racism research for disruptive online futures. One of the panelists, Andre Oboler, discussed a prototype tool that could in future provide technological support for a more robust online ecosystem, combating cyber racism and threats. The prototype is called CSI-CHAT (Crowd Sourced Intelligence— Cyber-Hate and Threats), a tool that was completed by OHPI in late 2016.
Conference celebrations peaked with Andrew Jakubowicz and guests during a conference dinner in Haymarket. Explore the gallery of photos here.
* Festschrift Friday December 8, 2017. From Left: Assoc Prof Heidi Norman, Assoc Prof Devleena Ghosh, Prof Heather Goodall, Assoc Prof Nina Burridge , Prof Hilary Yerbury.
Participants at SSI’s IDPwD celebration (clockwise from top left): SSI Chief Operations
Officer Steve O’Neill presents an award to Core Community Services Multicultural
Communities settlement worker Aylin Yokhanna; Sean Willenberg; Georgia
Zogalis; Jonathan Yung and Neill Duncan; Javier Ortiz; and Yasmin Farhat.
The theme for (IDPwD) 2017 was “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient society for all”, with the overarching principle “leave no one behind”.
The theme resonated with SSI’s values of equity and diversity and a special event held in SSI’s Bankstown office on December 5 showcased the positive outcomes stemming from SSI’s partnerships and collaboration in disability inclusion.
The event tapped into the talent, knowledge and experience of people with disabilities. It was MCed by Ability Links participant Yasmin Farhat and entertainment was provided by Jonathan Yung and Neill Duncan, both professional musicians living with a disability.
Catering was provided by ‘Syrian Kitchen’ and ‘The Magic Table Cloth’, businesses started through SSI’s Ignite Small Business Start-ups and IgniteAbility programs.
The Hon. Lou Amato MLC addressed the event and acknowledged the importance of SSI’s work conducted towards an inclusive society in the multicultural sector.
Keynote speaker was the Chair of the Disability Council NSW, Mark Tonga, who since a spinal injury during rugby training has been a passionate and committed advocate for people with disability.
“People think of me after my accident as a lesser able version of myself,” he said. “However, I think of me as a new person, not less or more of a person just different with different abilities.”
Mr Tonga highlighted the journey that people from multicultural backgrounds go through when accepting and acknowledging disability and the role that community has in making that journey somewhat easier.
Georgia Zogalis, manager of SSI’s FutureAbility program, spoke of SSI’s expertise in supporting culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and being trusted by government to help increase National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) access by CALD communities in NSW.
She said the FutureAbility team had been busy organising the first state conference on DiverseAbility: NDIS Inclusion on April 19, 2018, seven roundtable discussions for CALD communities and disability providers, 20 in-language NDIS sessions for under-resourced groups, an SBS radio campaign on the NDIS, and training all of SSI’s service teams on the NDIS and issues relating to CALD disability.
Sean Willenberg, Disability Inclusion Promotions Officer for the NSW Business Chamber, said with over 55 per cent of Australians with disability being of working age it made good sense for businesses and organisations to access that talent pool. The cost savings of employing people with disability could be seen through reduced staff turnover, recruitment and retraining costs, he said.
Javier Ortiz, SSI’s Multicultural Disability Inclusion and Promotion Officer, said it was difficult for recently arrived migrants to find a feeling of belonging but sports clubs, migrant resource centres, English lesson providers, service providers and community groups made the process far easier.
“Strengthening these connections so they are inclusive and accessible to everyone can make a huge difference in the lives of people with different abilities, their families and carers,” he said.
Steve Gholab, Operations Manager for Ability Links NSW, said the lived experience of a person with disability was an asset to all.
“A person-centred approach goes a long way towards creating meaningful connections and building a more inclusive community — something we can all work towards, as individuals and organisations,” he said.
Twelve non-government and community organisations, businesses and local governments received awards to recognise their work in disability and inclusion: Iraqi Australian University Graduates Forum, Japan Club of Sydney, Ahmadiyya Muslim Organisation, CORE Community Services, Capital Careers, Australian Learning Institute, Sydney Multicultural Community Services, Canterbury Bankstown Council, SydWest Multicultural Services, Blacktown City Council, Pacific Islands Mount Druitt Action Network and MTC Liverpool.
The event’s celebratory focus was underlined by Mr Ortiz’s call to action: “It will be up to you to keep this momentum going, in your workplaces, in your communities, sports clubs, in your programs and projects. Building an inclusive society for all will ensure we all benefit and no one is left behind.”
Over 60 people actively looking for employment attended the Blacktown Employment Accelerator held at Blacktown City Council to connect with potential employers, service providers and community organisations offering targeted support, such as resume and cover letter writing.
“Finding employment is not only one of the highest priorities, but also one of the biggest hurdles during the settlement process for refugees and migrants,” said SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis.
“However, the barriers to achieving sustainable employment grow exponentially for those living with a disability, who are usually at the most vulnerable end of the spectrum of the newly-arrived community.”
SSI knows this and, besides delivering the Ability Links NSW (ALNSW) program, it developed innovative initiatives that ensure the social and economic participation of people with disability in all aspects of our community. These include EmployAbility, which offers tailored career pathways or IgniteAbility, which supports people with disability to start their own businesses, Ms Roumeliotis said.
The Blacktown Employment Accelerator was co-developed by SSI ALNSW as a community development project after the local team identified radical variations in the unemployment rates across the LGA, peaking at around 20 per cent in areas such as Bidwill, Hebersham, Emerton and Lethbridge Park, Tregear.
A concerning trend also shows that unemployment rate improvements seen during 2012 to 2013 were disappearing. This prompted, prompted SSI Linkers in the area to begin envisaging work that could be done to improve job prospects for unemployed ALNSW participants and community members — particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with disability and recently arrived refugees.
Twenty-year old Joel, who arrived in Australia earlier this year from Syria, was one of the job seekers who attended the Employment Accelerator to improve her working situation.
“I’m currently working as an admin assistant at UNHCR; however, I only do five days a fortnight, which isn’t enough,” she said.
“I’m here today to try to find another job I can combine with the one I have, as I need to work full time to be able to make a living.”
Mahnaz also arrived in Australia on a humanitarian visa but isfrom Iran. She’s been here for two years, but she hasn’t been able to secure a job yet.
“I need to find a job. I’m looking in the aged care sector but I would be happy to take any offer I get today,” she said. “I used to work as a teacher, but here I don’t have my qualifications recognised and that’s not an option — so I need to expand my search.”
The job seekers attending the event had the opportunity to connect with representatives of organisations such as Bolton Clarke, BE Campbell, Macarthur Aged Care, Ridley, Hire Up, Thrive Refugee Enterprise, Reach for Training, Max Solutions and Parramatta College.
You can check out the photos of the event here.