Community Northern Beaches (CNB) has collaborated with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to reach out to the local Tibetan community to raise awareness about the census and its importance.
CNB also succeeded in securing employment for one of its clients, Dolkar, as a Census Officer with the ABS.
Dolkar had been a client of CNB since she came to Australia as humanitarian entrant via India two years ago. Previously a natural medicine practitioner in India, Dolkar was keen to improve her English and find her path in Australia as soon as she could.
She was matched with a volunteer under CNB’s ESL mentoring program, which helped Dolkar apply for a Diploma of Library course and secured a volunteer position for her at Avalon Community Library. That experience led to Dolkar undertaking a work placement at Dee Why Library.
Just before the last lockdown, she was offered a casual position there and gained her driver’s licence through CNB's Learn to Drive program.
During her time with the ABS, Dolkar translated general information about the census and how to fill out forms, which was recorded in Tibetan in two videos that were posted to YouTube.
In addition, she was available to answer questions from the community and assist some people with form filling.
Dolkar’s engagement with the ABS helped the community to understand why it is important to participate in the census and increased the number of people who filled out the census. As a result, it is expected that the census data will be more accurate for the Tibetan cohort residing in the Northern Beaches.