Moments of healing and friendship amidst uncertainty about the future are at the heart of a community art work that will debut during SSI's New Beginnings Festival for Refugee Week 2017.  

Shazy Sahrulazizi, Ariff Bahar and Chen Hu are all final year students of the Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Wollongong. As do many of their peers, they juggle classes, study, group assignments and extra-curricular activities, trying to fit everything into their busy schedules.

Mina Furqan couldn’t understand what had happened to her. Back in her home country of Pakistan, she was very active, with a job she loved as a community worker and always involved in lots of projects.

Ladan Haghighat volunteers for SSI in the Friendship Garden at Auburn Centre for Community. That’s fitting because her name, Ladan, is Persian for the nasturtium flower.

His name is Clodoaldo Moroni but you can call him Al. Al, originally from Brazil, loves volunteering.

A classic red-brick house located in a quiet suburb on the Northern Beaches hosts the beginning of a beautiful bond between two families. Through SSI Housing and the generosity of its owner, the granny flat has become home to a newly-arrived refugee family of four from Syria.

When Zakia Housaini started working with SSI it changed her personality.  “It made me more confident. And I kind of know the world better,” she said.

Basima Zahrah’s life has undergone huge change since she was forced to leave her native country of Iraq in 2015. She escaped alone to Jordan with her four young children, three of whom live with disability.

A group of newly arrived young people from Syria and Iraq learned how to keep themselves and their friends safe in the Australian surf on a recent outing to Manly Beach.

Something that unites the different arms of civil society is a belief in working for the common good. Religious organisations, community groups, unions, Rotary branches and more benefit from the hard work of everyday citizens who have put up their hands to get involved with something that inspires their passion. They do this for no other reason than that they believe in a cause.

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.

The SSI Community Kitchen at Auburn Centre for Community on April 19, was a combined celebration of Tamil New Year and Easter.

The delight, pride and gratitude were palpable when recipients of the Settlement Services International (SSI) Allianz Australia Refugee Scholarships were acknowledged during a multicultural afternoon tea in Bankstown on April 12.

Affordable housing - why is it so hard to find and how do we work together to fill the gap? 

SSI would like to extend our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Louise Voigt, who passed away peacefully at her Sydney home on Friday 7 April 2017.

When Najmah Alkhameesi and her family arrived in Australia from Iraq in 2013, they knew they had reached a safe haven where they did not face the constant threat of danger. However, life in a new country, with a different culture, an unknown language and a family member with a disability didn’t turn out to be easy for this family of five.

{loadposition gala-1}   Download Sponsorship Prospectus The event The SSI Mosaic Gala will be held at the stylish Ivy Ballroom on Friday, September 14, 2018. An estimated 400 guests will attend. Purchase tickets/tables now! The concept of a mosaic is about bringing many different elements together to form a beautiful whole. In this way, it […]

Yagoona Public School celebrated Harmony Day, March 21, by launching its new $100,000 building for the Community Hubs Program.

We all remember finding our first job. That initial leap into the workplace means navigating a new world with its own unique jargon and requirements like CVs, interview skills and position descriptions.

Global polls consistently rate Sydney as one of the least affordable cities to find a home. The problem is universal, affecting buyers and renters of all ages and backgrounds. This ongoing issue has once again attracted significant media attention in 2017.