SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis will amplify her community impact in 2020 through a series of new board appointments

A unique approach to regional refugee settlement is delivering strong results for integration and refugee retention in the new settlement location of Armidale, offering insights that will guide other regional centres seeking to welcome newcomers as long-term members of their communities.

Sydney’s ongoing housing affordability crisis and high living costs have hit low-income groups particularly hard, leading an innovative social enterprise to open up in an inner Sydney suburb with high homelessness rates. Not-for-profit Settlement Services International (SSI) has partnered with Mission Australia to open The Staples Bag Camperdown – inner Sydney’s first low-cost grocer that provides high-quality nutritious food staples, while also saving an average of two tonnes of food from landfill every week.

Settlement Services International (SSI) partner The Bower, has provided more than 200 families of refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds with free up-cycled household goods through their House to Home program. 

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.

NSW Labor’s pledge of $158 million for frontline domestic violence services is a step in the right direction but risks leaving refugee and migrant women in the cold, according to a community organisation that supports newcomers to Australia.

Investment in accommodation alone is not sufficient to help women who are new to Australia safely escape domestic and family violence, according to a community organisation that supports refugees and other newcomers to Australia.

Hello and welcome to the first edition of Settlement Services International’s (SSI) Coffs Harbour Community News! My name is Lisa Steward and I’m SSI’s Community Engagement Coordinator for the Coffs Harbour area.

Leading Queensland multicultural organisation Access Community Services Limited (Access) has today merged with Settlement Services International (SSI).

Learning English, connecting with the community, and finding employment and housing will be the key priorities for refugee families arriving in Armidale in the coming months, according to a leading settlement expert. Yamamah Agha, the Humanitarian Settlement Program (HSP) Manager for community organisation and social business Settlement Services International (SSI), said in the 16 years she had been working with refugees, those areas consistently rated among new arrivals’ top goals for life in Australia.

The opportunity to provide a more holistic housing service to people at risk of homelessness is greatly welcomed by Settlement Services International (SSI), after the announcement today by Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister for Social Housing Pru Goward that SSI has been selected to provide Supported Temporary Accommodation (STA) in the Illawarra. SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said the decision by NSW Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) to move away from using low cost motels and caravan parks for temporary accommodation was a great step toward achieving better social outcomes for vulnerable people.

An innovative not-for-profit organisation has today launched in Coffs Harbour, where it will support newly arrived refugees as they begin their lives in Australia. The federal government has selected Settlement Services International (SSI) as the Coffs Harbour 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.

People are at the centre of SSI’s work. We offer a range of responses to meet the evolving needs of people who are at a stage in their life where they’re experiencing vulnerability — whether that be homelessness, unemployment, forced displacement.

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.

A leadership approach that combines innovation with non-predatory expansion has seen not-for-profit CEO Violet Roumeliotis recognised as one of Australia’s top business women. On Friday at the NSW Telstra Business Women’s Awards, Ms Roumeliotis was selected in the ‘For Purpose and Social Enterprise’ category as the state representative who will go on to the national awards. She was one of 24 NSW finalists in the awards, which recognise the achievements of extraordinary business women.

Refugees in the Liverpool area are getting support to feel more at home in Australia, thanks to a partnership that introduces new arrivals to local businesses that will greet them with patience, understanding and welcome.

Today, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Zed Seselja launched SSI newest social enterprise – Food for Thought in Campsie, NSW.

Working with local service providers, Sydney MCS is addressing the lack of adequate information regarding services available to the people it supports within the community.

Samira Maksoud is a Syrian refugee who has been in Australia less than six months. But that hasn’t stopped her from finding a part-time job and enrolling to study in two tertiary qualifications.

Canada is recognised globally for the welcome it offers to refugees, evident in everything from the Prime Minister personally greeting airport arrivals to its settlement of 30,000 Syrian refugees in a four month period. It was with great delight then that SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis recently accepted a Canadian government invitation to talk about SSI’s work in this area.