For the second year running, Settlement Services International (SSI) is the official community partner for TEDxSydney.

People born in a non-English speaking country have similar rates of disability as other Australians but are about half as likely to receive formal assistance.

  SSI Ability Links participant Pip Smith has won the Blue Mountains City Council Visual Arts Prize, and this opened new opportunities for her.

SSI celebrated its annual fundraising event — the SSI Mosaic Gala — at the glamorous Merivale Ivy Ballroom on September 14, with entertainment by Lucky African Drum and Sirens Dance, guest speaker Matt Okine and the announcement of winners of the Ignite Multicultural Women’s Business Scholarship.

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.

More than 200 delegates and 50 speakers were part of SSI’s DiverseAbility NDIS Inclusion Conference on April 19.

With more than 200 delegates and 50 speakers, the first-of-its-kind conference in NSW put the emphasis on discussing issues and challenges specific to people with disability from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background.

At SSI we excel in providing essential services to new arrivals in Australia, but to achieve the best outcomes for our newcomers we must take our role a step further: we want to drive conversations about settlement and migration, and use our knowledge and expertise to lead discussions that will inform policy and help millions of people all over the world.

Bassam Maaliki, a 14-year-old student at Homebush Bay High School and founder of the social change campaign #uBelong, was announced winner of the Youth Medal at the NSW Premier’s Harmony Dinner on March 21.

No-one knows more about the barriers people with disability face every day than someone with a lifetime of first-hand experience. But what can apparently be a drawback has been used by Yagoona resident Quang Nyugen as a drive to establish his own business, while also finding a way to help the community.

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.

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 62 year old Nigerian electrical engineer experienced unimaginable misfortune, shortly after his arrival to Sydney on a Rotary Convention. Edwin Ikwu’s life had a 360-degree turn when he was diagnosed with a severe viral infection, while visiting Australia in June 2014.

More innovative and tailored initiatives for refugee and migrant families are essential to overcoming settlement challenges and fostering a long-term sense of belonging, delegates heard at a conference last week.

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. 

Magda Szubanski is to be guest speaker at SSI’s inaugural Mosaic Gala, to be held at Merivale Ivy Ballroom on September 15.

Three years ago, the inaugural Cultural Shift symposium explored and shared the needs of recently arrived migrant and refugee families, and the most effective models and approaches for supporting these families through their settlement journey.

A vision-impaired runner will join the SSI team in City2Surf 2017 thanks to a connection his Ability Links linker made with the Achilles Running Club in Sydney.  

Journalists, comedians and writers will explore the blurry lines between freedom of expression and cultural appropriation at an event that will tip the traditional debate format on its head. Cultural appropriation controversies continue to dominate headlines, targeting everything from festival wear to the hairstyles of the Kardashians, but critics argue these continual outcries are stifling the creative expression. Should artists be restricted by cultural boundaries when creating their work?

Over 200 young refugees have spent a day developing the fundamental skills to successfully settle in Australia at SSI’s E3 Youth Forum, a day of workshops and activities held at the Refugee Welcome Centre in Callan Park earlier this month.