Adoption is a legal process and transfers rights and responsibilities of parenthood from the child’s birth parents (or from the Minister for those children where parental responsibility is with the Minister) to the adoptive parents.
‘Openness’ in open adoption refers to the building of a relationship between the birth and adoptive families through contact with each other, and the degree of openness with which adoption is discussed within the adoptive family.
One of the key aspects of the Department of Family and Community Services’ Safe Home for Life reforms is the promotion of open adoption as the preferred placement option for children and young people in care, ahead of long term foster care.
As a provider of out of home care services to children and young people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, through its Multicultural Foster Care Service, SSI has a keen interest in the development of open adoption in NSW.
SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said that open adoption was new territory for SSI and many other out of home care agencies, many of whom were represented at the forum.
“Whilst we know we can draw on the skills and expertise that our Multicultural Foster Care Service program already holds in caring for children and young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds, we also know there will be new practice issues to consider in working with open adoption,” Ms Roumeliotis said.
ACWA Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Dr Wendy Foote said that adoption was not just about adding another child to the family.
“Open adoption means extending the family’s borders to encompass not only the child or young person, but also their culture and their biological family,” Dr Foote said.
“It’s important that honest and sometimes difficult conversations between families happen early on in the process of working with families, as adoption is one of the possible pathways for children to achieve stable and permanent homes when their biological families are not able to provide safety and stability.”
The importance of cultural maintenance was a key point in all presentations. The minimising of the ‘ripple effect’ of adoption was also raised as a consideration through an increased level of community engagement and consideration of the broader family.
The ripple effect concept refers to the wide-ranging impacts that adoption has beyond just the mothers and the children that are adopted.
“Open adoption is just one of a number of options available to children and young people in out-of-home care, and we want to be sure that all options are carefully considered to ensure it’s in the best interest of the child,” Ms Roumeliotis said.
Michelle is a case manager who works with people seeking asylum in SSI’s Status Resolution Support Service (SRSS). But she also holds the cooking utensils close to her heart, having spent many hours happily cooking with her family in England and Australia. But she admits she has only recently embraced her passion in Australia.
“My family has always cooked together, but the older I get, the more I love cooking, especially traditional food from Afghanistan,” she said.
As her first time as head chef behind the scenes at Community Kitchen, Michelle chose one of her favourite dishes; Kabuli Palow, which is a chicken and rice dish with raisins and carrots.
A popular dish in Afghanistan, palow rice is often reserved for special occasions such as weddings and parties, and festivities such as Eid. A colourful dish renowned for its textures, colours and nutritional value, palow rice can be done with chicken, beef, or just a selection of vegetables and nuts.
And in Michelle’s opinion, it’s hard to go wrong, even if you stray from the recipe.
Kabuli Palow (Chicken with raisins, carrots and basmati rice)
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
4 onions, chopped
1 large tbsp tomato paste
3 cups of basmati rice (Rinse the rice several times in cold water until water remains clear. Boil in 6 cups of water – add the rinsed rice and boil rice in a large strainer)
¼ cups oil
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp garam marsala
1 tsp cumin
10 grams sultanas
150 grams slivered almonds
150 grams pistachios
2 carrots, chopped julienne
Method
Heat the oil and fry the onion until dark brown. then add the chicken and fry until brown on all sides.
Add cardamom, garam Marsala, cumin, tomato paste, and fry together for 3 minutes. Then add just enough water to cover, and reduce the heat to simmer. Leave for 1 hour.
Cook rice separately until just al dente. Add the rice to the chicken mixture, along with sultanas, almonds, pistachios, and combine well. Cover and leave mixture in the oven to sit or cover with foil or cloth for 30 mints to trap heat.
Fried Eggplant
Ingredients
2 eggplants
Oil for cooking
3 fresh tomatoes, sliced
2 chillies, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 tsp turmeric
1 cup natural yoghurt
A few sprigs of mint
1tsp ground curry powder
1tsp paprika
Method
Peel the eggplant and cut it into large 5cm squares. Heat oil in frypan and fry both sides of the eggplant. Layer sliced tomato in the bottom of a large tray, and cover with sliced eggplant. Fry chillies, two cloves of garlic and turmeric, and layer on top of eggplant.
Cook in the oven at 180 C until crisp. Mix yoghurt, mint and one clove of garlic and serve as a garnish.
Green salad
Ingredients
3 tomatoes, cut into quarters
1/2 an iceberg lettuce, cut finely
1/2 an onion, cut into half moons
4 radishes, cut finely
Lemon wedges to serve
Small handful of fresh mint
Olive oil to taste
Method
Combine all ingredients and season to taste.
Net Diasporas is led by musician and academic Dr Roger Mills from the University of Technology Sydney and supported by SSI through its Arts & Culture Program.
We are currently calling for expressions of interest from settlement service organisations in NSW and Victoria to participate in this innovative music project. For more information see the EOI guidelines at the PDF link below.
Net Diasporas Music Project EOI196.85 KB
Some of the happy English class participants.
The classes are part of a program introduced last year as a pilot after SSI identified that most individuals from the SRSS program, which provides assistance to people seeking asylum, still had difficulties expressing themselves in English after the six-week language course they received on arrival. A group of dedicated SSI staff saw the need to improve this situation, and helped to develop the ongoing English classes, which are open to people of all abilities.
Cathy Gao, an SSI Case Manager and member of the working group that organised the classes, said the English lessons were valuable in many ways.
“This is a very necessary program that is in addition to a Navitas English course. Our clients don’t feel very comfortable learning English with other people in large classrooms; it’s hard for them to fit in. These classes are a good opportunity to meet people from a similar background,” Ms Gao said. “Now that clients have work rights, this gives them an opportunity to meet new people, learn new skills, socialise and empower them in their work. Grammar comes with practice, but this gives them the base language skills.”
SSI runs this program in partnership with Mission Australia’s AMEP Enhancement Program, which — with funding from the Department of Education and Training — offers a two-day training session for volunteers recruited to work as teachers. The AMEP Enhancement Program also offers ongoing workshops and curriculum advice for trained volunteers.
“Volunteering with this group of people is very helpful and very satisfying. Being able to share my skills with others is very rewarding,” said Tahmeena, one of the volunteer teachers. “The greatest achievement is helping other people in their daily lives.”
One of Tahmeena’s students, Zeinab, who arrived in Australia in 2013 seeking asylum from Iran, agrees with her.
“Tahmeena is a good teacher because English was hard to learn at first. It has got much easier, and I am very thankful for her help,” she said.
Research carried out by the working group shows that the students who continued to attend found that the classes had become an important part of their life and were helping them to settle into their new environment. The favourite topic was found to be ‘Australian History’ and ‘parts of the body’; the least favourite topic was ‘going to the doctor’.
The program operates over four 10-week terms coinciding with school holidays. There is an average of 10 to 15 students in each class, which are open to all levels of English and focus on conversation skills directed at overcoming everyday life situations. Participants also receive support to create and amend resumes to help them get a job.
Attendees took part in sustainability workshops, garden tours, and cooking demonstrations. Children were also invited to play soccer and help make mud bricks with other gardeners.
SSI partnered with Auburn City Council in June 2015, to support the expansion of the existing Friendship Garden and transform it into a productive and inclusive community garden project. The efforts have been working, with participants saying they enjoyed meeting new friends at the garden and having something the whole community could work on together.
SSI’s Humanitarian Settlement Services (HSS) Service Delivery Manager, Yamamah Agha said the garden had been a particularly positive project for the people from refugee backgrounds, and those seeking asylum, in the Auburn area.
“The Spring Party was a great way of connecting people from diverse backgrounds —such as refugees and people seeking asylum —who all live in the Auburn community, to make them feel included and welcomed,” Ms Agha said.
It was also a great celebration of the work everyone had put in to the garden so far. “People have worked so hard to build the garden into a productive shared space.
Centre Coordinator at Auburn Centre for Community, Leah Briers, said the partnership between Auburn City Council and SSI to further develop the garden had been fruitful.
“It has been a great opportunity to expand the garden with SSI,” Ms Briers said. “We want to invite the community to connect with the garden and showcase what we are doing with sustainability and how we are building strong communities. Everyone is welcome.”
Abdul, who receives case management support from SSI while his refugee status is assessed, regularly attends Friendship Garden workshops and has helped build the garden with local gardeners.
He said he reconnected with a number of friends at the garden who he met at SSI Community Engagement events such as Community Kitchen and the National Parks project.
“I like the flowers, and I like the festival, I like it,” he said. “I love gardening and I have made friends. It’s good to learn new skills.”
David, who also receives case management support from SSI , brought his entire family to the party. “It is good and everyone is happy, we are very happy,” he said.
The partnership between SSI and Auburn City Council to collaboratively develop the Friendship Garden will continue for a further two-and-a-half years until 2018.
Regular community gardening days are held on Thursdays, from 9.30am to 1.30pm.
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SSI partnered with Auburn City Council in June 2015 to support the expansion of the existing Friendship Garden and transform it into a productive and inclusive community garden project. Their combined efforts over the past three months are clearly evident, with the garden now flourishing and attracting significantly more people from the community to enjoy the shared space.
As SSI Humanitarian Settlement Services (HSS) Service Delivery Manager Yamamah Agha explained, SSI clients who have taken part in the project — including refugees and people seeking asylum — have developed a range of new skills such as planting, weeding, soil testing, composting and even carpentry, as part of a series of workshops coordinated by SSI’s Community Engagement team.
Some of the active participants at Auburn Community Friendship Garden.
All participants say they have also made new friends, diversified their skills, developed stronger relationships, and enjoyed sharing the common goal of developing the garden and watching it grow.
“SSI has had an extremely encouraging response from our participants who have thoroughly enjoyed nurturing the Friendship Garden alongside others in the community. Participants have achieved exactly what the program set out to achieve; they learned new skills with new friends, and feel more confident in their own communities,” Ms Agha said.
“The project is an ideal example of how SSI’s Community Engagement program is helping to connect people from diverse backgrounds and make them feel included and welcomed in their community.”
Abdul, who is seeking asylum in Australia and regularly attends SSI Community Engagement activities, said the gardening days have become a regular part of his routine.
“I come to all of the activities – Community Kitchen, bush regeneration and the Friendship Garden to see my friends. I love gardening so I come every week to learn new skills,” he said.
Yosuf, who is also supported by SSI while his application for a refugee visa is assessed, is another regular participant whose confidence and English speaking skills have significantly improved since the program commenced.
“I like the gardening, and the painting, and I like seeing my friends every week,” he said. “I like coming here.”
The community garden will be open to everyone for the Friendship Garden Spring Party on Saturday October 24, to celebrate the combined efforts of Auburn Council, SSI , and the community in developing the project. The Spring party will Include food stalls, entertainment, family activities and a jumping castle, everyone is welcome.
Details: Auburn Centre for Community, 44A Macquarie Road, Auburn, 10am-4pm.
Khalid’s dish of vegetarian biryani, fried noodles and salad.
“I grew up in a multicultural household and I got to try very different cuisines from a young age,” Khalid said. “My father was Arab, my mum was Kurdish and my grandmother Iranian, so I have a blend of cultures and love for variety in my blood.”
Cooking is one of the many hobbies of this former children’s playwright, who finds in the kitchen a way to explore his creativity as he used to do in the arts industry in Iraq.
“I am attracted to the creative side of things. Doesn’t matter if it is writing, cooking or another activity, I will always try to go beyond and do it in my own way,” Khalid said.
This approach did not go unnoticed when cooking for SSI’s Community Kitchen, where Khalid went his own way and prepared his own version of vegetarian Biryani.
“The good thing about Biryani is that it can be prepared it countless different ways. I can cook around eight different varieties of Biryani, and this is just one of them,” he said.
When asked about the reason behind choosing this dish, Khalid replied that it was not a difficult choice, as contrary to what people think in Australia, Biryani is not only Indian but one of the most famous Iraqi dishes.
“When Daniel, my case manager, asked me if I wanted to volunteer at Community Kitchen with a vegetarian option, he suggested that I cooked Biryani as the other time,” Khalid said.
The “other time”was when Khalid cooked for a big audience at Community Migrant Resource Centre in Parramatta. Following the Shia Muslim tradition, Khalid commemorated the 40th day of mourning after his mother’s passing with a celebration where he served food to the guests. Daniel, his SSI case manager, attended the event and was impressed with Khalid’s cooking skills, so he nominated him for Community Kitchen.
“I agreed to volunteer at Community Kitchen because I had experience cooking for over a hundred guests and I knew I could do it,” Khalid said. “Whenever I cook for people and I see them enjoying my food, it makes me very happy.”
Iraqi Vegetarian Biryani
The chef, Khalid and his dish.
Serves 8-10 people (Khalid warns that these are Middle Eastern measures, but that in Australia the below recipe can be used to feed an entire army!)
Ingredients:
1 kg Basmati rice
1 packet Vermicelli egg noodle
500gm potatoes (diced to fine squares)
250gm carrots (diced finely)
2 packets of of peas
1tbsp of ghee/butter
1 cup raisins
Canola oil
Almonds to taste
Spices:
25gm black pepper
50gm of Biryani seasoning (found in Arabic grocery shops)
Salt to taste
Ground cardamom
Turmeric
Paprika
Cinnamon
(And Khalid’s secret ingredient that he resisted unveiling!)
Prep and cooking time: 2 hours
Method:
- In a frypan, fry the vermicelli egg noodles with a splash of canola oil until browned.
- Place peeled and chopped potatoes in a frypan and sauté them until slightly golden.
- Chop the carrots into little squares and put them in a pot to boil. After a couple of minutes, add the peas.
- Once the vegetables are cooked, place the diced carrots and peas on a frypan and toss them in oil. Add the fried, diced potatoes.
- After the noodles have been fried, add enough water to simmer them and cook until al dente.
- Mix the vegies with the almonds and the raisins, and stir with canola oil until all ingredients are completely mixed with the noodles.
- Meanwhile, bring 8 cups of water and the salt to boil in a large pot. Add the rice and stir. Then add the rest of spices until the rice has cooked and absorbed their flavour.
- Serve the rice separated from the noodles. Add a side of salad.
Participants in the photography workshop run by CuriousWorks and SSI.
SSI Arts & Culture Coordinator Carolina Triana said last year’s storytelling and filmmaking workshop with CuriousWorks was such a success that SSI decided to work with them again on a similar project.
“We chose to focus on photography this time because it is more easily accessible to everyone and a number of participants had expressed an interest in photography before ,” Ms Triana said.
The workshop is usually held at Auburn Centre for Community but a session in early October was organised as an excursion to the Royal Botanic Gardens, where participants were encouraged to explore the park and find images to use in their final projects.
Through CuriousWorks’ specific approach to arts and media, the facilitators aim to empower communities to use digital media to tell their own stories in their own words.
“We want people to find a variety of images and textures that they can identify with, something they feel that represents who they are,” said Mr. Gonzalez, a facilitator at CuriousWorks. “We want them to capture those images with their cameras and take them back to the studio where they will work to create a collage.”
The participants range from those who have had no experience using a camera before, to experts like Soheil Errehadolhagh who shocked the workshop facilitators with his skills.
“For over 20 years, I used to run my own photography business in my home country,” the Iranian-born photographer said. “The pressure of the government on my family due to our religion was too big, so we had to go and leave all that behind.
“I have only been in Australia for six months, so I am still learning the language and the way of doing things here. However, in the future I would like to open my own photography business like the one I had in Iran.”
Personal interest and professional purposes are the most common reasons sited by the participants for enrolling in this workshop.
“Before coming to Australia, I was a cameraman for 12 years at a television channel,” Azhar, from Iraq, said. “I want to find a job in media here, so I have enrolled in this workshop to learn more about photography and expand my job opportunities.”
This excursion was organised as a part of a six-week photography workshop. Some of the works will be displayed in a showcase and celebration event on November 3, at Casula Powerhouse Centre.
This initiative is part of SSI’s Arts and Culture Program, which supports people who are seeking asylum, and who are from refugee backgrounds, to develop their creative skills.
The positive role of arts and cultural activities play in the initial phases of refugee and asylum seeker settlement is well recognised. Research shows that creative expression can help build confidence and develop core skills, including in language, among newly arrived migrants.NSW research also supports the positive impact that refugee artists have on Australia and the State’s cultural life.
Launched on Thursday September 24, at Auburn Centre for Community, the standard Staples Bag has about $60 worth of nutritious and essential food items such as milk, bread, assorted pantry staples, seasonal vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood and fruit available for $20.
But the benefits of the food supply packages are two-fold, with the Staples Bags also providing a number of opportunities for job seekers.
Developed as an initiative of the CoAct/SSI Work for the Dole (WFD) program, the Staples Bag provides job seekers with tangible skills in a range of areas including logo and website design, packaging and warehouse maintenance, customer service and direct marketing.
SSI Manager of Employment Services, Terry Wilson, said the food packages were a prime example of how SSI’s holistic approach to developing employment programs produced practical outcomes.
“The Staples Bag is one of three Work for the Dole initiatives where job seekers can help in the creation of a product that can be marketed,” Mr Wilson said. “These initiatives involve jobseekers throughout the process so they develop valuable experience, skills and training along the way.”
The family Staples Bag ($30) contains up to $80 worth of grocery items and can feed 3 to 4 people for up to one week. There is also a Vegetarian Bag ($15) and a dedicated Fruit Bag ($5).
The food packages can be purchased at the Auburn Community Centre every Monday and Thursday between 1pm-5pm.
For more information visit thestaplesbag.org.au
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Newcastle Programs Co-ordinator Debbie Carstens said the forum demonstrated the great depth of knowledge and experience of practitioners working in the sector in Newcastle, and the openness they have to working together for better outcomes for CALD children, young people and families.
“It was such an inspiring day and finished with a genuine energy and enthusiasm to continue finding ways to work together,” Ms Carstens said.
A panel of seven local practitioners from key organisations worked through a case study of a recently arrived family of refugee background facing domestic violence issues.
A culturally responsive and collaborative approach to addressing child protection issues within a CALD family context was discussed. The panel explored factors that could have contributed to the situation such as trauma, settlement and cultural factors.
The group them explored possible support services for the family and considerations for prioritising implementation of support in a sensitive and achievable way.
Feedback was very positive and participants enjoyed networking with such a large and broad gathering of providers.
For more information about keeping families strong, happy and healthy as they settle into Australia, a parenting booklet and audio-visual resource called Caring for Children,, available in 10 languages, can be found here.