News and Events
National Families Week in May was a time to celebrate with family, make contact with extended family and friends, and connect to activities within the wider community.
The following are events for Refugee Week – Sunday June 18 to Saturday June 24 2017 – organised by or in collaboration with members of the NSW Settlement Partnership.
Gymea Community Aid and Information Service partnered with Sutherland Shire Council and Advance Diversity Services to celebrate Reconciliation Week this year.
Skilled migrants make up 68% of migrant entrants in Australia, and are twice as likely to have a university degree compared to an Australian-born worker. Despite this, they make up only 5% of the tertiary qualified workforce, with 9% of skilled migrants who have attained a permanent visa remaining unemployed.
Maria-Elena Chidzey, Coordinator of Northern Beaches Multicultural Services, Manly Community Centre & Services, is so close to her Tibetan friends and clients that late last year they invited her to attend with them one of the most important events for the Tibetan community and Buddhist religion: the Kalachakra Initiation at Bodh Gaya, Bihar, in east India.
The resettlement of families from a refugee background at Mingoola in regional NSW is a great example of what refugees can contribute to this country, according to Emmanuel Musoni, chairperson of Great Lakes Agency for Peace and Development International.
A group of novice singers and musicians from refugee and migrant backgrounds delighted a packed audience in the Powerhouse Youth Theatre, Fairfield, on December 10 with their Women in Harmony showcase.
Joel Loum Okumu, a former student of St Francis Xavier’s College, Newcastle, and participant in programs run by Northern Settlement Services (NSS), has won a prestigious John Bell Scholarship.
From July 2015 to June 2016 NSW Settlement Partnership (NSP) helped many thousands of clients through casework, services, community coordination and youth settlement.
Two busloads of refugee families travelled from Liverpool to an exhibition in Glebe for the launch of Courageous Journeys: A Family Portrait on November 16.
A new NSW Settlement Partnership project in the Parramatta local government area will help tenants, real estate agents and landlords who are attempting to manage failing tenancies.
With business suits from the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Hugo Boss and Pierre Cardin you would be forgiven for thinking you were standing in a high-end store in downtown Sydney instead of an office premises located in suburban Bankstown.
Dress for Work is a project run by Metro Assist designed to give men from marginalised and disadvantaged backgrounds business suits in order to attend job interviews and other important appointments.
Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Zed Seselja, on September 22 visited three NSP partners during a trip to Sydney.
In collaboration with EJD Consulting & Associates, SSI hosted an NSP Evaluation and Reporting Workshop at SSI Bankstown on September 7.
The workshop, which focused on client outcomes, was held to encourage and support NSP partners to contribute to the NSP evaluation framework.
Twelve young women graduated from Mount Druitt Ethnic Communities Agency’s (MECA) Girl SKILS program in September.
Their successful completion of the program — Smarts, Know-How, Intelligence, Leadership and Strength — was the culmination of nine weeks of effort and dedication towards gaining lifelong interpersonal skills.
CORE Community Services at Cabramatta on September 21 received a delegation from the People’s Republic of China, headed by Mr Huang Donghui, Deputy Inspector, Research Office, State Ethnic Affairs Commission.
He was accompanied by 23 senior officials from the Ethnic Affairs Commission across China.
Matthew Neuhaus, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Assistant Secretary for Africa, will be the keynote speaker at the launch of a national peacebuilding initiative on September 21, aimed at African refugees and migrants from Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Raju Manandhar was one of the eight newly graduated White Ribbon Male Advocates in the St George and Sutherland region from Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Chinese background who became community role models to champion the prevention of violence against women at White Ribbon Night, July 28, at St John’s Anglican Church, Rockdale.