The Zero Barriers Business Excellence Awards in Bankstown on Wednesday July 25 will celebrate 40 businesses and organisations working to make themselves and their communities more inclusive for people with disabilities.

Rashays Casual Dining recently announced that “by 2019 all Rashays restaurants will be deaf friendly.”

SSI continues to see the great benefit in engaging with significant international events such as the UNHCR Annual Tripartite Consultations for Refugees and the NGO consultations in Geneva.

Sunday July 8 signalled the start of NAIDOC Week 2018, a time in which SSI celebrates the past, present and future contributions of our nation’s Indigenous people and their heritage. This year’s theme was ‘Because of her, we can’, which provided a fantastic opportunity to recognise the past and current contributions of Indigenous women to Australian society.

Hundreds of Inner West locals recently showed their support for refugees and a thriving arts community as part of Refugee Week 2018 celebrations.

Settlement Services International (SSI) has expressed its enormous appreciation to Belvoir St Theatre for raising $29,000 for SSI’s Refugee Education Scholarships.

Settlement Services International (SSI) was proud to be the official charity partner for the TEDxSydney 2018 Humankind-themed conference on Friday, 15 June 2018 at the International Convention Centre (ICC).

Xiaolong Yang is a middle aged single father who is living with physical and psychiatric disability. After connecting with SSI Ability Links through his linker Kathy, he began learning more about the NDIS, looking at ways to gain support from it and also have a more active participation in the community.

Settlement Services International (SSI) has been working on a joint initiative with the Disability Inclusion office at the Department of Family & Community Services (FACS), the NSW Business Chamber and seven local government areas to foster more inclusive communities for people with disability, particularly those from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

June has been an incredible month for SSI, our volunteers and our settling families in Armidale, marking Refugee Week, Volunteer Week and many more great events and initiatives.

SSI Ability Links NSW, together with the Autism Community Network, has decided to recognise and celebrate carers in the Blacktown area by organising an event for them in June to focus on their wellbeing.

Settlement Services International welcomes the contribution the NSW Government is to make in support of vulnerable children, families, disability services and multiculturalism, according to the 2018–19 NSW State Budget delivered on June 19 by NSW Treasurer, the Hon Dominic Perrottet MP.

The Community Innovation Fund supports projects tailored by the community, for the community. Marking Refugee Week 2018 (June 17-23), Settlement Services International (SSI) is announcing that the second round of applications for its Community Innovation Fund will open on July 25, 2018, with information sessions to be held on Friday, July 6, in Fairfield and Liverpool.

During Refugee Week we recognise the contribution of refugees around the world and address the current living situation of thousands of displaced human beings around the world.

Refugee Week is Australia’s peak annual activity to raise awareness about the issues affecting refugees and celebrate the positive contributions made by refugees to Australian society.

Ethiopian refugee and 33-year old single mother Adi Tefera arrived in Australia as a young child. Today she keeps herself busy in Sydney with her young son Yonathon along with her passion for food and a rapidly expanding pipeline of new business projects.

Welcome2Sydney Ambassadors Alice and Kate recently had the privilege of guiding Sydney newcomers Renold and his family on a tour of Sydney’s cultural hotspots.

Settlement Services International (SSI) CEO and 2017 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year Violet Roumeliotis on May 28 launched a scholarship program through which four women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds will receive a 12-month package of business start-up support.

Iranian refugee, artist and engineer Majid Rabet is facilitating a series of creative workshops for newly arrived artists in the lead up to the SSI New Beginnings Festival for Refugee Week 2018, staged at the Refugee Welcome Centre, Lilyfield.