The report from the University of Technology Sydney and All Together Now shows three newspapers were responsible for 91% of these articles and 96% were authored by people from European or Anglo-Celtic backgrounds. This is simply not good enough in 2019, when one in three Australians is born overseas.
Multiculturalism is part of our national identity. It is time the media got on board with this and began highlighting diverse voices and the positive stories happening in these communities.
At minimum, journalists and commentators must report ethically on race – upholding their own editorial checks and balances. As community members, we should rightly expect all editorial content – even opinion – to adhere to the core tenants of journalism: truth and accuracy.
This is an excerpt from an opinion piece by SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis published on Mumbrella. Click here to read the article in full.
The SSI New Beginnings Festival in Spring, a unique celebration of the creative work of artists, performers and craftspeople from refugee and migrant backgrounds living in New South Wales, will have an Access and Inclusion tent and volunteers briefed to assist people with different levels of ability.
With diversity and inclusion at its core, the New Beginnings Festival strives to be inclusive and accessible for all members of the community.
Mable, the festival’s Accessibility and Inclusion Partner, will host an Access and Inclusion tent, with a quiet space, lived experience educators from the SSI Our Voice program, DIY bag making workshops, sensory tools such as noise-cancelling headphones, sensory toys and communication cards, mindfulness activities and disability and cultural awareness resources.
Mable is an online platform that enables people with disability and older Australians to find and connect with independent support workers in their local area.
Support workers from Mable, who represent diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, will be present to assist attendees to navigate and enjoy the festival.
Mable Chief Executive Officer Peter Scutt said, “We are proud to be invited as the Accessibility and Inclusion Partner for this year’s festival, given the shared values and mission of Mable and SSI New Beginnings to drive awareness of diversity and inclusion in the arts.
With the support of Mable, SSI has developed an Access and Inclusion Guide to welcome and support and attendees of all abilities. The Guide, which includes information about travelling to the venue, location of places of interest and accessible bathrooms and facilities, is downloadable from the New Beginnings website.
The event venue, Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour, is fully accessible for persons with mobility impairments or using a wheelchair.
An initiative of SSI’s Arts & Culture Program, the SSI New Beginnings Festival has been held bi-annually during Refugee Week (June) and Spring (November) since 2015.
Through an innovative and vibrant program staged at inner-city venues, the festival showcases the work of culturally and linguistically diverse artists and makers to Sydney audiences and beyond.
Ultimately, the celebration of hope, unity and new beginnings seeks to counter negative sentiments about refugees and people seeking asylum, and to encourage people to celebrate the creative contributions newcomer artists and communities bring to Australia.
Event details:
When: Saturday, November 16, 2019
Time: 12.00 pm – 8.00 pm
Where: Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour, 11 Harbour Street, Sydney NSW
www.newbeginningsfestival.com.au
Find the Mable Accessibility and Inclusion Tent next to the main stage.
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About SSI:
Settlement Services International is a community organisation and social business that supports newcomers and other Australians to achieve their full potential. We work with all people who have experienced vulnerability, including refugees, people seeking asylum and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, to build capacity and enable them to overcome inequality.
About Mable:
Mable believes that all individuals should have the choice and control over who supports them. That is why Mable has established an online platform that helps people with disability, older Australians or their families choose and connect with support workers who share their interests and meet their needs best.
Mable wants to increase inclusivity for people with disability and older Australians and is passionate about working with the individuals on its platforms – and broader Australia – to make this happen.
For more information, visit: www.mable.com.au
Media enquiries:
SSI Communications Officer, Greg Clennar, 0417 687 064, gclennar@ssi.org.au
Featuring hip hop artist L-Fresh the Lion, Australian-Sudanese music icon Ajak Kwai, and emerging lyricist and saxophonist Jamarz on Marz, the one-day extravaganza that includes dance performances, artisan workshops, and cultural food and markets, is set to be Sydney’s cultural event of the year.
2019 New Beginnings Festival Ambassador Shyamla Eswaran is an accomplished performing artist, choreographer and teacher with three decades of dance experience and a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law.
Ms Eswaran has taken centre-stage at previous New Beginnings festivals and is a strong advocate of the creative and cultural vision of the festival.
“Every refugee and migrant represents a valuable thread in the rich tapestry of multicultural Australia, yet their stories and voices are not always represented or heard in the mainstream,” said Ms Eswaran.
“I am deeply honoured to be the New Beginnings Festival Ambassador and wholly support it as a platform that gives artists from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to be seen, heard and appreciated.”
As artistic director of Bindi Bosses, an Urban Indian fusion dance group, Ms Eswaran will be performing again on November 16 in Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour.
“Audiences can expect a colourful program of performers and experiences which will make New Beginnings 2019 a cultural wonderland,” she said.
What started in 2015 as an intimate suburban community event has now evolved into an annual spring festival attracting thousands of Sydneysiders into the heart of the iconic Darling Harbour.
Settlement Services International (SSI)’s New Beginnings Festival is the brainchild of festival founder and SSI Arts and Culture program manager Carolina Triana — the 2017 recipient of the NSW Premier’s Multicultural Community Medal for Arts & Culture, which recognised her work with refugees and people seeking asylum.
Ms Triana said that as the festival’s audience reach broadens, so does its program and overall impact in promoting Australia’s culturally diverse talent to the general public.
“To have artists of L-Fresh the Lion’s calibre perform and share the festival’s vision is a testament to how far New Beginnings has come since its inception, and how we continue to attract a wider and more diverse audience year-on-year,” she said.
Ms Triana said that the festival is fertile ground for launching innovative and high-quality arts experiences that promote a deeper understanding across many communities.
“With so much creative talent and cultural vibrancy among newcomer communities, this year’s milestone event rings true to the festival’s vision of building a creative platform for newly arrived artists and makers, while simultaneously creating a space for community building and cohesion.”
Event details:
When: Saturday, November 16, 2019
Time: 12.00 pm – 8.00 pm
Where: Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour
11 Harbour Street,
Sydney NSW
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About SSI:
Settlement Services International is a community organisation and social business that supports newcomers and other Australians to achieve their full potential. We work with all people who have experienced vulnerability, including refugees, people seeking asylum and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, to build capacity and enable them to overcome inequality.
Media enquiries:
SSI Senior Communications Officer
Rebeka Selmeczki
M: 0468 998 300
Despite family members being highly educated and professionally equipped with civil engineering degrees, each individual had to start their lives from scratch and embark on entirely new employment pathways.
Ms Shahoud arrived in Australia with zero English language proficiency and sought a role that enables her to develop her language skills without a multiple-year, qualification recognition process.
“In the first one-and-half years of living in Australia, I was just learning English,” Ms Shahoud said.
Thanks to the NSW Government’s Refugee Employment Support Program (RESP), Ms Shahoud is now employed by social enterprise bakery The Bread and Butter Project.
The Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education Geoff Lee said that when the NSW Government took an additional intake of refugees during the Syrian crisis, there was an acknowledgement that this undertaking required more supports in increasing capacity to create employment and economic independence pathways for new arrivals.
“Today, NSW is leading the country in responding specifically to the needs of refugees for tailored employment programs.”
Delivered by community organisation Settlement Services International (SSI) and partners, RESP is a four-year program that supports refugees and asylum seekers into sustainable employment and addresses employment as an integrated part of the whole refugee settlement journey.
NSW Coordinator General for Refugee Resettlement Professor Peter Shergold said that RESP had been designed to enable the public, private and not-for-profit sectors to work together while focusing on its area of expertise.
“Expertise ranges from tailored case management support, education and training, or job creation – and brings each of these elements together to deliver better employment outcomes for refugees.”
Through tailored employment pathway plans, participants’ barriers to employment are addressed to support and achieve individual career goals. Offering extensive support to low and high-skilled refugee job seekers, RESP is making a genuine difference to the employment outcomes of new arrivals.
Ms Shahoud’s job success has had a trickle-down effect on the rest of the family. Like his mother, Fawzi Shahoud also engaged with the program for tailored employment support and as a direct result now works with Transport NSW.
“My son Fawzi is also civil engineer and, with the help of RESP, he has a good job,” Ms Shahoud said.
“The RESP has helped my family find jobs and be part of the community, and we are very happy.”
Since its inauguration two years ago, RESP has helped to secure employment for almost 25% of people that engage with the program, a figure that exceeds other mainstream employment programs that generally report refugee employment rates below 20%.
According to Building a New Life in Australia (BNLA): The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants, an ongoing study conducted by the Department of Social Services (DSS) from 2013, after 18 months in Australia, only 17 per cent of refugees are in paid employment.
With RESP, however, from the moment that a refugee participant makes contact with the program, it takes a refugee job seeker who has found employment on average 6.5 months to secure a job.
The program is designed to counteract “occupational skidding” — a phenomenon whereby refugees are unable to find work that matches their skills and qualifications — by avoiding a “one-size-fits-all” approach and developing custom-built employment pathways, designed for the long-term.
As a wrap-around refugee employment program, RESP participants have wider access to a range of activities than those supported by mainstream employment providers. Those activities aim at securing longer-term employment in a variety of industries, including transport and education.
Andrew McRae, General Manager of Eastern Region Construction at Fulton Hogan, an employer partner of the project, said bringing refugees into work has been a positive process.
“As an industry, we’re facing a shortage of people available for careers in construction, so Fulton Hogan is keen to support pathways that bring more people into skilled roles.
“Partnering with SSI on RESP not only provides jobs for refugees, but it also helps create pathways for a whole new generation of people to build rewarding careers in construction.”
SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said that RESP recognised that humanitarian migrants were not a homogenous group and that they had varying levels of education and skills.
“Some individuals may arrive with more significant barriers and require a longer employment pathway journey and more supports,” Ms Roumeliotis said.
She said the “secret sauce” to the success of RESP was a potent partnership between government, a highly regarded community sector, existing migrant communities and socially-minded businesses.
“At SSI, partnerships are in our DNA and, ultimately, it is the power of partnerships across industries that underpin RESP’s success,” she said.
Ms Roumeliotis said that although Australia had a successful settlement record built on the cross-collaboration between industries, she warned that it was important not to get stuck on past achievements and to look to the future.
“The time is now ripe for harvesting better long-term outcomes for refugees, businesses, and the Australian economy through continued cross-sector collaboration,” she said.
Event details:
When: Thursday 24 October 2019
Time: 5:30pm – 8:00 pm
Official Proceedings: 6:15 – 7:15pm
Where: NSW Parliament House – Theatrette
6 Macquarie St,
Sydney NSW
Media enquiries:
SSI Communications Officer Rebeka Selmeczki
M: 0468 998 300
In a groundbreaking initiative to promote diversity and equality in the Australian music industry, SSI and AWMA have joined forces to support six female artists from diverse backgrounds to attend the 2019 AMWA program between 8-9 October in Brisbane. The two-day program includes a series of forums, a keynote address, networking opportunities and the Awards ceremony, concert and party.
The six women that SSI will take to the 2019 AWMA program include:
Angela Paez (aka ANGE): An alternative R&B singer-songwriter from Barcelona, Spain, ANGE’s music has been described as flavourful and emotive. She has self-released her first two singles and has already received attention from publications like Life Without Andy, TheMusic.com.au, Purple Sneakers as well as plays from Triple J, FBi Radio, 4ZZZ and MTV Australia.
Angela Rosero: A Colombian artist who has captivated Australian audiences with her combined talents in acting and singing. She is the lead singer of the well-acclaimed Sydney dance orchestra Cumbiamuffin. In 2010, she established a creative space called “La Sala” where she produced high-quality artistic events with a strong focus on community development.
Behiye Suren: A passionate singer and songwriter from Turkish/Arap Alevi background who produced her first EP ‘Season of Plums’ in 2010. The album rotated on SBS and FBi Radio stations before she toured in Australia, Dubai, Beirut and Turkey. Behiye was featured in Kuwaiti Airlines Magazine, Time Out Istanbul, and on television in Turkey and Lebanon.
Jessica Paraha: A multi-disciplinary artist with a career spanning across film, television and radio production. As an Ngati Hine Māori woman who comes from a long line of storytellers and myth-makers, Jessica’s practice is community-minded and aimed at engaging and empowering her community to celebrate their voices. Wearing many hats, Jessica is the co-presenter and co-producer of FBi Radio’s weekend breakfast radio show The Weekend Overhang with Daisy Catterall. The show celebrates diverse music, with a focus on First Nations and LGBTQ artists.
Sylvia Zambrano: A well-established music practitioner that has a long career in the music industry spanning across Latin America and Australia. Sylvia has led the production of large-scale concerts including Latin star Marc Anthony. Since relocating to Australia, Sylvia has been developing the music careers of various Australian bands. In 2017 she was a presenter at the Australian Music Week conference and was part of the production crew of the Bigsound Festival.
Vyvienne Abla: A well-established producer, artist and tour manager that has been working in the music industry for 15 years. In 2007 she founded Vyva Entertainment, and 2015, the 4ESydney Festival. Vyvienne refers to Hip Hop to empower others, with a focus on integrating industry, education and community to create unique pathways for young and professional artists.
Armenian-Lebanese jazz composer and artist Zela Margossian was one of six female artists who had the opportunity to attend AWMA with SSI in 2018.
This year, Ms Margossian will not only be attending the Awards ceremony but will also be taking centre stage and performing her composition piece on piano with Zoe Hauptmann (bass), Ali Foster (drums), and a member from her band, Zela Margossian Quintet, Stuart Vandegraaff (clarinet).
Ms Margossian’s music has been described as “Armenian folk-jazz”, “ethno-jazz” or a “fusion of folk and jazz with traditional Armenian musical influences”. In November 2018, the quintet released its debut album, Transition, which was recently nominated for an ARIA Award in the Best World Music category.
Ms Margossian has performed internationally with piano solo recitals in Beirut, Yerevan, New Jersey, Montreal and Sydney, including a performance with the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra. With her band, she has made appearances at festivals such as the International Women’s Jazz Festival 2017 and the Beirut International Jazz Festival 2018.
Ms Margossian said she was honoured to perform at the Australian Women in Music Awards this year.
“I’m so grateful to be part of such an important women’s music movement and to share the stage with so many of Australia’s finest female artists and musicians.”
AWMA, the brainchild of Founding Executive Director and Sydney-based music producer Vicki Gordon, has been established to recognise and acknowledge the value, achievements and contribution of women across all areas of the Australian music industry. AWMA is also committed to redressing the underrepresentation of women on the main stage, on radio, in festival line-ups, as award recipients and in the boardrooms of the Australian peak music industry bodies.
Ms Gordon said, “AWMA’s vision is to lead with generosity, to insist that our society benefits when musicians and those who work with them are empowered from a diversity of places, cultures and identities.”
SSI Arts & Culture Program Manager Carolina Triana said that the unique partnership between AWMA and SSI created a platform where culturally diverse female artists could become recognised for their talents and contributions to the Australian music industry.
“Through joint commitment and collaboration the opportunity provided by AWMA to cast the spotlight on women of all backgrounds, is unprecedented,” Ms Triana said.
“It’s inspiring to see talented women like Zela have the opportunity to reach new and mainstream audiences while maintaining their unique cultural heritage.”
AWMA recognises the contribution and value of First Nations and multicultural performers by acknowledging excellence in artistry and musicianship, technical and production skills, cross-cultural development, songwriting, humanitarian work, classical music, music journalism, music photography, filmmaking, management, leadership and more.
Media enquiries:
SSI Communications Officer Rebeka Selmeczki
E: rselmeczki@ssi.org.au
M: 0468 998 300
SSI’s General Manager of Service Delivery Community, Karen Bevan, highlighted the importance of initiatives like The Staples Bag in helping people on lower incomes to access low-cost food.
“With rising costs of living in Sydney, The Staples Bag is committed to supplying affordable food staples to those in Sydney who need it most,” Ms Bevan said.
The grocer will launch on September 11 at Common Ground Sydney, Mission Australia’s six-storey residential building that provides vital housing and wrap-around support services for people who have experienced chronic homelessness and individuals and families with low to moderate-incomes.
Mission Australia CEO James Toomey said the social enterprise would be a great resource for residents living at Common Ground and for other people in the area who were doing it tough.
“Too many people in our community are struggling daily to afford life’s basic essentials, and are often forced to leave important items off their shopping list just so they can make ends meet,” he said.
“The Staples Bag will help to ease this burden and will offer an opportunity for people experiencing financial difficulty to do their weekly groceries at a fraction of the cost.”
As well as offering low-cost groceries, SSI’s The Staples Bag promotes financial inclusion in the broader community, with volunteering and employment opportunities offering job seekers a chance to acquire the life skills that help them find, and keep, a job.
Common Ground Sydney resident Susie* said, “Working at The Staples Bag gives me a positive, meaningful role and something to look forward to each week. This has had a great impact on my mental health.”
The launch of The Staples Bag in Camperdown will include a Brazilian barbeque and a “Disaster Chef Championship” cook-off, with teams of local dignitaries, staff and Common Ground tenants competing to create nutritious, tasty dishes using affordable, rescued groceries from the new store.
“The cook-off is going to be a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to putting my cooking skills to the test,” said Mr Toomey.
The Camperdown grocer is The Staples Bag’s second store in Sydney, with another store in Campsie in Sydney’s West. The Staples Bag also holds frequent pop-up stalls in high-need areas around Sydney.
*Name changed to protect the identity of the people Mission Australia helps.
Media are invited to attend the launch event.
Event details
Date: 11/09/19
Time: 1:30-2:30 pm “Disaster Chef Championship” cook-off
2:30-3:30 pm Grand Opening
Location: Common Grounds Sydney – 31 Pyrmont Bridge Road Camperdown NSW 2050
Media enquiries:
SSI Communications Officer Rebeka Selmeczki
E: rselmeczki@ssi.org.au
M: 0468 998 300
The national Multilingual Disability Hub is a multilingual hotline and website providing relevant and easily accessible information on disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 14 languages: Arabic, Assyrian, Bangla, Cantonese, Farsi, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Mandarin, Nepali, Spanish, Tamil, Urdu and Vietnamese.
“Providing access to information is key to enabling people from CALD backgrounds to become active players in the disability space,” said Karen Bevan, SSI General Manager Service Delivery – Community.
“Whether it’s the friendly bilingual staff operating the hotline or the informative website, the Multilingual Disability Hub continues to help bridge this gap for many people with disability,” she said.
People wanting to access information in their language have the choice of calling the hotline, which is operated by trained bilingual staff, or visiting the website, which contains “in-language” information about disability and the NDIS.
For more information on the Multilingual Disability Hub please head to www.multilingualdisabilityhub.info
The Multilingual Disability Hub is funded by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) Program.
Kathy Karatasas, Director of SSI’s Multicultural Child and Family Program said, “When children and young people from CALD backgrounds are in foster care they can lose access to important cultural, religious and linguistic influences which shape the development of identity and belonging; a loss of connection to culture can have immediate and ongoing detrimental effects on the child or young person.”
Maintaining a connection to culture could have positive effects on young people’s identity development, personal growth and wellbeing, she said.
“At SSI, we believe children and young people who are supported to learn about and maintain a connection to their culture – their family’s ethnicity, religions/s and language/s – will have better opportunities to stay connected with their other family (often also referred to as biological / birth) and community. In time, this can contribute to positively shaping their self-identity and self-esteem.”
Therapeutic life story work for children and their families allows for exploration of the past, understanding of the present, and hope for the future.
In his foreword to My Life and Me, Richard Rose, Director of Child Trauma Intervention Services UK and Honorary Associate at the Institute of Open Adoption Studies, University of Sydney, says within life story work there is a need to share lives and share stories, to acknowledge the present and to feel connected to self, family, culture and community.
“We achieve this through the completion of life story work books,” he says.
“My Life and Me provides the template for discussion, acknowledgement and affirmation; with these in place it affords celebration, connection and the chance to accept who we are.”
In an effort to help providers respond to children’s cultural needs, SSI is calling for greater collaboration to help educate and build upon an aspect of care that will benefit the whole foster care sector.
SSI CEO, Violet Roumeliotis, said, “SSI is proud to offer a culturally responsive approach to children and families and we want to help other providers create tailored packages to respond to children’s cultural needs.
“The My Life and Me suite of resources will improve the capacity of our own workforce, and that of other providers, to confidently deliver culturally responsive practices in our work with children and families.”
In addition to the life story workbook, which draws upon material from the Department of Communities and Justice, SSI has developed its own unique resources for practitioners delivering life story work. These are:
- My Life and Me companion guide
- All About My Child (for birth parents)
- Having Difficult Conversations
- A guide to foster care for children from 6 – 12 years of age
- A guide to foster care for children and young people from 13 – 18 years of age
The My Life and Me resources will be launched with the support of the Department of Communities and Justice.
“The Department of Communities and Justice is proud to see providers like SSI build upon the sector’s practice, and proactively contribute to shaping better outcomes for the children and young people of New South Wales,” said Daniel Barakate, Department of Communities and Justice Director.
Known as ‘the squad’, the congresswomen President Trump targeted are all from diverse backgrounds. He reserved the worst of his remarks for Rep. Ilhan Omar, who came to America as a child refugee from Somalia and was singled out at a campaign rally days later.
The rally crowd’s responding chant to “send her back” was chilling – and a sentiment that has increasingly crept into our own mainstream discourse in Australia, thanks to the likes of Pauline Hanson and Fraser Anning normalising fringe ideas.
Click here to read this opinion piece from SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis in full on Women’s Agenda.
Federal government data released overnight sparked a furore after it revealed just under four in five participants in the Jobactive scheme had their welfare payments suspended at least once in the 12 months to June this year. Reasons for suspension of payments included failure to attend job interviews or appointments and failure to look for work.
These figures are indicative of a complex system that is not adequately meeting the needs of people experiencing unemployment, particularly disadvantaged jobseekers, said SSI’s General Manager Service Delivery – Community, Karen Bevan, noting the federal government is already progressing a $1.3 billion overhaul of Jobactive to improve access to vacancies and training.
“Everyone should be able to exercise agency and control over their pathways to employment. This leads to stronger, long-term employment outcomes. A lack of flexibility in the current Jobactive system has led to perceptions that it is overly focused on compliance and penalties, rather than support,” said Ms Bevan.
“We welcome the government’s move to overhaul this system, with a national roll-out due in 2022.”
Ms Bevan said a particular deficiency in the current Jobactive program was the lack of specialist providers for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds – something that existed under the previous iteration of the program, Job Services Australia.
“Future employment service providers should be required to demonstrate capacity to be culturally responsive to job seekers from diverse backgrounds, including newly arrived migrants and refugees,” she said.
Migrants and refugees face unique barriers to employment including lack of local work experience, limited local networks and limited English language proficiency – something that is exacerbated by the move towards more online service delivery.
“We remain concerned that online service delivery of employment programs may unwittingly exclude cohorts with poor English language proficiency and/or poor digital literacy,” said Ms Bevan.
“We suggest the inclusion of digital literacy screening in the initial assessment, providing digital literacy training to job seekers and including this as an approved activity to meet mutual obligation requirements.”
In SSI’s experience, the key ingredients to support individuals to navigate, enter and remain in the workforce long-term are individualised employment pathways, job readiness support, pre-employment training and work experience, effective job-matching and post-employment support.
Media enquiries:
SSI Communications Officer Hannah Gartrell: 0478 679 078, hgartrell@ssi.org.au
SSI Communications Officer Stephen Webb: 0488 684 163, swebb@ssi.org.au