A month busy with events has reinforced for me the importance of these opportunities that bring diverse people together to share knowledge and experience. Recent events SSI has been involved in included Harmony Day, SSI’s Speakers’ Series discussion on youth and radical ideologies, the Third Sector Expo and the Cultural Diversity and Law Conference.

An SSI case manager joined a diverse panel at the “Volunteering for All - Trends and Tips” forum last month to discuss and explore the positive effects of volunteering. The forum was hosted by NSW peak body The Centre for Volunteering at Customs House, on March 25. SSI case manager Marcela Hart, who was nominated to sit on the panel by colleagues, said the event had a particular focus on building the capacity of the volunteer sector to recognise, respect, manage and support people from diverse backgrounds.

Young Joo Byun is multilingual in an unusual way – she speaks Korean and English and also communicates through Korean and Auslan sign language. After a serious illness when six months old, Ms Byun’s mother suspected she had trouble hearing. This suspicion grew when Ms Byun’s younger brother started exceeding her in childhood milestones, and her deafness was confirmed when she was five years old.

Sydney Alliance is currently running a Housing Affordability Campaign to highlight how the housing crisis affects Sydney residents. Settlement Services International (SSI) has joined the advocacy campaign to highlight how the crisis is compounded further for asylum seekers and refugees. Language barriers, the lack of rental history and skills to navigate the property market, social isolation, high unemployment and mental and physical health issues combine to make securing housing a problem for refugees and asylum seekers.

Waking up to the voices of news broadcasts from three different radios, and sometimes also the television, is an almost daily ritual for Felix Bennett. Some mornings, Mr Bennett hears a sports story that he has submitted and he gets a rush of excitement. “It makes me happy for the day and makes me feel special,” Mr Bennett said about hearing his story on the radio.

Communities in Wollongong and Parramatta enjoyed free events to celebrate the "official" arrival of the Ability Links NSW (ALNSW) program and to meet their local ‘Linkers’. Both events incorporated great local musicians, inspiring speeches, and fun with selfies, chalk boards, hand print signs and henna.

After months of hard work since its inception in July 2014, the start of 2015 saw almost 20 launches of the Ability Links NSW program, culminating in the major Parramatta and Wollongong events. SSI is proud to be funded by the NSW Government to implement this program in partnership with UnitingCare and St Vincent de Paul throughout NSW; a program that will help change the lives of people with disability, their families and carers.

SSI was busy throughout December–January celebrating the achievements of Ability Links NSW and introducing the program to local communities. Ability Links NSW (ALNSW) supports people with a disability, their families and carers to live the life they want, as valued members of their community.

SSI donated a pharmacy vaccine refrigerator to the Asylum Seeker Centre (ASC), so that the centre can provide free vaccines to those asylum seekers who are not covered by Medicare. During a meeting convened by Refugee Health and attended by David Keegan, SSI Manager Humanitarian Services, it was revealed that some groups of asylum seekers did not have access to important vaccinations, such as immunisations for children.

A partnership between Legal Aid NSW and settlement services provider Settlement Services International (SSI) has been effective in providing free legal assistance to recent arrivals and migrants, especially in Sydney’s west, an independent review has found. Almost 2,200 services were provided to clients in the first year of the project and the partners today signed an undertaking to continue the successful collaboration.

Thanks to a generous member of the Bankstown community, a 16-year-old refugee boy with cerebral palsy has been gifted a much-needed electric bed that has meant he no longer needs to spend 18 hours a day on his mother’s lap. The boy, whose family was originally from Iraq and is now living in Warwick Farm in western Sydney, previously spent most of the day in his mother’s arms because it was not safe for him to be in a normal bed.

Staff involved in SSI’s Playtime program were given a guided tour of the Owl's House Early Education Centre at the University of NSW last month, to observe how the service operates. Owl's House is a specialist childcare centre with a focus on early education that has provided support to SSI’s Playtime program. 

Rotary Club of Randwick presented SSI Manager of Humanitarian Services David Keegan with a Paul Harris Fellowship last month for his work as a mental health first aider as well as recognition for his work with refugees and asylum seekers. 

With many of SSI’s clients living under financial hardship, the organisation took further steps towards supporting their needs by launching its online donations page in time for Anti-Poverty Week in October.

A short film, which premiere’s today, explores the real life experience of homelessness faced by refugee youth living without their families in Sydney. ‘Broken Time’ is the story of Ali, an Unaccompanied Humanitarian Minor (UHM), who falls back on his survival instinct when he finds himself homeless on the streets of Sydney. Developed by Settlement Services International (SSI), which provides services to humanitarian entrants, with funding from The Australia Council for the Arts, the film will be launches today in Bankstown, to coincide with International Youth Day. Dilber Hussain played the role of Ali, and was all too familiar with the experience of his character in the film. Dilber is from Pakistan and arrived in Australia in 2012 as a UHM at the tender age of 17. When his circumstances rapidly deteriorated and he was faced with homelessness, Dilber said he was frightened. “Staying in a different place every night, and with strangers, it was hard,” said Dilber. “I didn’t know how to get help, and I feel very lonely here without my family.”

A short film, which premiere’s today, explores the real life experience of homelessness faced by refugee youth living without their families in Sydney. ‘Broken Time’ is the story of Ali, an Unaccompanied Humanitarian Minor (UHM), who falls back on his survival instinct when he finds himself homeless on the streets of Sydney. Developed by Settlement Services International (SSI), which provides services to humanitarian entrants, with funding from The Australia Council for the Arts, the film will be launches today in Bankstown, to coincide with International Youth Day. Dilber Hussain played the role of Ali, and was all too familiar with the experience of his character in the film. Dilber is from Pakistan and arrived in Australia in 2012 as a UHM at the tender age of 17. When his circumstances rapidly deteriorated and he was faced with homelessness, Dilber said he was frightened.

  Mahdia, 18, could not attend school in Iran because of social and financial barriers. But since she arrived in Australia with her mother and brothers, she has thrown herself into school work with vigour. “I really, really love going to school,” Mahdia said, “because I had so many barriers in the country where I came from. I love my school, I love my teachers and subjects and I love to study. I like to go to the library to study whenever I can and if I don’t, I feel like I have missed out on something.”  Mahdia was born in Iran, where her family had fled to from war-torn Afghanistan. Attending school in Iran was all but impossible, she said, because of her gender and ethnicity. “But I studied by myself and went to an institute to study English,” Mahdia said. “Then we came here to Australia. We were so broken. We had a lot of issues but we did it.” 

  Australia has a long and proud history of resettling some of the most vulnerable refugee women and their families, however, major gaps in support services for these women have been identified and need to be addressed.  Speaking today in Sydney at the Refugee Women at Risk forum hosted by Settlement Service International (SSI), SSI Manager Humanitarian Services David Keegan said that based on consultations with refugee women, it’s clear the current level of support should be reviewed. “Research conducted by the UNSW Centre for Refugee Research suggests refugee women in Australia under the Woman Risk visa category experience higher levels of post-traumatic stress and face greater challenges on resettlement,” he said. As the largest provider of services to refugee women in NSW, SSI has observed that a significant number of refugee women who enter via other visa classes have also suffered extreme physical and sexual violence and trauma prior to their arrival and require higher level specialist support services during settlement in Australia. “SSI currently supports about 1000 vulnerable women, and consultations with 50 women have highlighted a greater need for support services, particularly in employment, affordable housing, health and education,” Mr Keegan continued.

The Ability Links program operated by the partnership of Settlement Services International, St Vincent de Paul Society NSW and UnitingCare has officially started today, July 1. The partnership was awarded the tender to deliver Ability Links across 23 local government areas in Sydney Metro North and Metro South and the Southern Region.   The Ability Links program contributes to the objectives of the National Disability Insurance Scheme to foster full and active participation of people with disability in their communities.

Access to timely and collaborative support services during their first years in Australia is critical to migrant and refugee families, ensuring a smoother transition to a new life here. This was highlighted at today’s Cultural Shift symposium on supporting migrant and refugee families through settlement. “It’s during the first few years of settlement that families […]