Settlement Services International (SSI), in partnership with Cricket NSW and Cricket Australia, today launched The Welcome Project to provide Afghan evacuees access to Australia’s favourite sport, cricket.

From July 1, 2020, Settlement Services International (SSI), in partnership with the NDIA, began delivering Local Area Coordination (LAC) services for the NDIS across two districts in NSW.

Yasmin Farhart, an empowered, south west Sydney-based Lebanese woman living with disability, is a professional public speaker, educator, activist and advocate for diversity and inclusion. 

At SSI, we talk a lot about providing support. But what does it actually mean to support someone? Sometimes it means offering assistance. Sometimes it just means being there to listen. Sometimes it means acknowledging someone’s challenges and showing that you accept them for who they are.

A new family resource for children and young people in foster care from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds will be launched by Settlement Services International (SSI) in Bankstown, Sydney, today.My Life and Me, a life story book with a cultural focus, was developed by SSI to address the loss of identity and belonging experienced by CALD children in care.

Welcome2Sydney provided an opportunity for nine new arrivals and four volunteer Sydney ambassadors to join an SSI group attending a Sydney Writers' Festival event at Carriageworks last month.

The latest project, launched in Lidcombe last month, helps bring together and support young refugees and their carers through a weekly social soccer meet-up. 

With NDIS now providing participants with more choice and control when they purchase the supports and equipment they need to achieve their goals and to live a better life, businesses providing disability services or interested in learning how to provide services for people with disabilities should be alert to the new opportunities this presents.

In line with the principles of social inclusion and with the International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) celebrated annually on 3 December, SSI has participated in a number of activities that not only support SSI’s effort towards building a more inclusive workplace, but also contributes to enable grassroots community leaders promoting disability inclusion in their communities.

The Zero Barriers Business Excellence Awards held Wednesday July 25 at the Bankstown Learning and Knowledge Centre celebrated businesses and organisations across South West Sydney working to make their practices more inclusive for people with disabilities.

The Zero Barriers Business Excellence Awards in Bankstown on Wednesday July 25 will celebrate 40 businesses and organisations working to make themselves and their communities more inclusive for people with disabilities.

Settlement Services International (SSI) has been working on a joint initiative with the Disability Inclusion office at the Department of Family & Community Services (FACS), the NSW Business Chamber and seven local government areas to foster more inclusive communities for people with disability, particularly those from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

Refugee Week is Australia’s peak annual activity to raise awareness about the issues affecting refugees and celebrate the positive contributions made by refugees to Australian society.

Theatre is one of the most ancient forms of art. The word theatre itself means a place for viewing, but theatre is more than that. Theatre is telling stories; it is turning a group of people into an audience and bringing them together to enjoy an experience.

SSI observed the 2017 International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) by celebrating community organisations, local governments, businesses and community members working towards disability inclusion.

A consortium led by SSI last week launched the NSW Settlement Partnership in Focus, a new resource showcasing an innovative service delivery model.   

Bass Hill has joined a growing number of communities around Australia that have a dedicated ‘hub’ for parents and community members to connect with each other. Last Thursday, the children at Bass Hill Primary School performed for a large crowd of parents, students and members of the community to mark the launch of a new Community Hub, which will be led by local community members with support from not-for-profit Settlement Services International (SSI).

Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow was the keynote speaker at the SSI Annual General Meeting held today at the SSI offices in Bankstown, which was attended by more than 80 people.

Like many Australians, I have been shaken by recent reports of Rohingya men, women and children fleeing their homeland in the thousands.

Over 350 women from across Sydney and communities worldwide attended the second annual Women of Diversity Dinner in Bankstown on July 29 — over 50 of them having been in our community less than six months.