SSI’s second partnership with CuriousWorks, an arts company that celebrates Australia’s diversity through storytelling, is a photography workshop for people from refugee backgrounds, or who are and seeking asylum.

The Federal Government’s decision to accept 12,000 refugees from the Syria and Iraq wars and provide more funding for the UNHCR has created an incredible amount of public and media interest. The pleasing thing about the interest is that it has been overwhelmingly positive in nature.

Life in Australia began just over two years ago for Mohsen, who came to Sydney 26 months ago as an asylum seeker from Iran. Sydney is a far cry from life in Iran but one of the most remarkable differences for Mohsen is the Australian wildlife, which has captured his curiosity ever since he arrived.

Settlement Services International (SSI) has been awarded for its ongoing efforts to support and maintain the mental health of refugees and people seeking asylum. At the annual NSW Mental Health Matters Awards in Sydney on September 30, SSI was presented with the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities award.

As part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival 2015 My Story project, SSI has organised a series of workshops to support the voices of young people from refugee backgrounds.My Story aims to document the changing face of children in Greater Western Sydney, one of Sydney’s biggest and most diverse regions. Sydney Writers’ Festival is looking for stories about the everyday lives of children aged 5 to 18.

Settlement organisations in NSW welcome the Federal Government’s announcement today that an additional 12,000 refugees from Syria will be settled in Australia and that $44 million in additional financial aid will be provided to help deal with the crisis.

Settlement organisations in NSW welcome the Federal Government’s announcement today that an additional 12,000 refugees from Syria will be settled in Australia and that $44 million in additional financial aid will be provided to help deal with the crisis.

Essa Khan, 45, from Pakistan is seeking protection as a refugee in Australia but on Tuesday, August 18, he rubbed shoulders with Australian Government and opposition politicians at Parliament House. 

Twelve staff from SSI attended Northcott’s inaugural Cultural Competency in Diversity Conference last week held in Parramatta. The focus of the two day event was to introduce an innovative model of cultural competency for the disability sector in NSW, with the launch of the Cultural Diversity Competency Framework (CDCF) and a range of tools to assist disability service providers to be more culturally competent when working with people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

“Australia must and can be better than this” Following the weekend’s events when prominent Aboriginal AFL player and former Australian of the Year, Adam Goodes was booed at every turn during the Swans v West Coast Eagles AFL match.

Every Friday for the last nine weeks, morning commuters have bustled through Circular Quay on their way to work, oblivious to a group of men dressed in gardening clothes and walking shoes who excitedly await their ferry.

As a key provider of resettlement and community integration support to refugees and asylum seekers in Australia, SSI has an important role in ensuring that the views of this marginalised group are clearly represented to local, regional and international stakeholders.

SSI gratefully accepted a generous donation of toys, blankets and food items for refugee and asylum seeker families from ‘Women Empowering Refugee Women’, a joint initiative of Knox Grammar and Ravenswood School for Girls , who kindly delivered donations to the SSI Parramatta office yesterday.

SSI celebrates 12 months of delivering the Ability Links NSW program today, July 22, with staff and partners in Parramatta. The program, funded by the NSW Government’s Department of Family & Community Services, Ageing, Disability and Home Care, began operating on July 1 2014.

From January 1, 2016, SSI will be the designated National Community Hubs Program (NCHP) Support Agency in NSW, enabling the organisation to extend its existing humanitarian settlement work supporting migrant and refugee families.

SSI has come a long way as an organisation since, April 2011 when we had just one staff member. Just how rapidly the organisation had grown and developed was very clear on July 1, when we officially began work in three new contract areas.

Today marks the first day of the new Settlement Services Program (SSP) for newly arrived migrants, humanitarian entrants and refugees, delivered by the 22-member consortium NSW Settlement Partnership (NSP).

SSI and partner organisations are in Geneva at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees consultations with NGOs. Over two weeks, NGOS from around the world will discuss best practice, lobby for support and plan to ease the global refugee crisis. Here are the top posts from the consultations.

SSI was honoured last November to be invited to join the committee of the International Metropolis Conference (IMC) after we participated in the event for the first time in Milan. Metropolis has a global network of 68 partner organisations in 23 countries. The network is composed of universities, think tanks, governments, service provider agencies and international organisations that work to enhance Metropolis’ collaborative approach on bridging research, policy and practice on migration and diversity. 

International Women’s Day was acknowledged and celebrated on March 11, and SSI used the occasion to highlight the strengths, vulnerabilities and specific needs of refugee women. SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said: “Refugee women are survivors, protectors and providers.”