Up to $50,000 is available for projects that address issues involving prejudices that might lead to racial discrimination, and that affects social cohesion and community harmony in the local area.
Overview
Diversity and Social Cohesion Program grants provide funds of up to $50 000 for community groups and organisations to deliver projects that address local community relations issues. The government believes that strong social cohesion is best achieved by projects that bring all Australians together and in particular create connections across the community.
Not for profit organisations often have great ideas to address issues of cultural, racial and religious intolerance, but sometimes need additional resources to turn their plans into reality. Diversity and Social Cohesion Program (DSCP) grants provide funding to help these organisations develop their own projects to help build stronger community relations.
Program Objectives
Under Aim 1, specific objectives include:
- addressing racism and prejudice at the community level
- raising awareness of all Australians to build greater respect and understanding of diversity
- promoting the importance of mutual respect, understanding and fair treatment of all, regardless of peoples’ cultural, racial or religious differences
- promoting harmony between groups of people from different cultural, racial and religious backgrounds
- promoting the understanding of Australia’s democratic principles, rights and obligations
- promoting the benefits of living in a culturally diverse society, including through participation in Harmony Day or other similar activities
- providing as feasible, practical and effective means of addressing systemic issues of racism and discrimination.
Under this aim, Indigenous organisations can be funded, but only where they identify and aim to address inter-community issues between Indigenous and migrant communities. Specific issues that impact on Indigenous Australians are funded through other agencies, including the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
Under Aim 2, specific objectives include:
- increasing opportunities for participation in social, economic and community life, including volunteering, social, cultural and sporting activities
- raising cross-cultural awareness of specific communities’ needs to facilitate increased participation in social, economic and community life
- building capability to have a voice and leadership skills, including for young people and women
- increasing awareness and understanding of government and non-government support mechanisms to build and/or support community capacity
- enabling faith and community leaders to better represent their community in Australia
- facilitating targeted information awareness initiatives and activities to build better understanding of Australia’s cultural diversity
- highlighting the positive contributions of specific community groups
- addressing involuntary social isolation of specific communities where this adversely impacts social cohesion and harmony.
Eligible Organisations
To be eligible for DSCP funding, organisations must be Australian incorporated, not-for-profit organisations, including service clubs, faith groups, art organisations, sporting bodies, community organisations and youth organisations, as well as local government authorities, government schools and universities and colleges of higher education.
Funding
Funding of about $1.5 million is available for new DSCP grants in 2013-14, of which $125 000 has been allocated tor the Multicultural Arts and Festivals Grants projects.
Generally, funding for individual projects of up to $50 000 is available to incorporated, not-for-profit organisations seeking to address issues involving prejudices that might lead to racial discrimination, and that affects social cohesion and community harmony in the local area.
Projects should provide opportunities for interaction between members of different communities and for all people to participate in Australian social and cultural life.
Expert Assistance
Writing a good quality grant application is a critical element in the application process. An application needs to be well thought through, written concisely, have clear objectives and purpose, and show clear links to the objectives of the grant guidelines.
The grant application must answer all questions, provide all required information and respond to the merit criteria. It should also reflect your organisation’s business strategy.
Writing a good application takes time and effort, and requires particular writing skills.
Bulletpoint are expert grant consultants and can assist with all aspects of grant preparation. We are an independent grants consultancy and not affiliated, associated, endorsed by any government agency.
We know what it takes to secure this grant.
Timing
Applications for 2013-14 are now closed.
Grant Recipients
Victoria
Organisation: The Association of Hazaras in Victoria
Project Name: All Afghan Indoor Soccer
Location: Springvale
Amount: $5000
Project Summary:
This project seeks to address the tensions that exist between different Afghan Ethnic groups (particularly Hazara and Pashtun) making it difficult for young people to feel part of a cohesive community. The project proposes to use indoor soccer to bring together young people from different Afghan ethnic backgrounds to work together on the same team and break down some of the historical conflict and tensions. The project will work towards breaking down old prejudices and attitudes through an area of shared interest for young Afghan men, regardless of their ethnic background.
Organisation: Australian Football League
Project Name: Bachar Houli Cup: Islamic Leadership & Schools Program
Location: Melbourne
Amount: $36 000
Project Summary:
Opportunities for Muslim youth to participate in organised school sporting competitions are limited, which leads to reduced interaction with, and participation in, the broader community. This project seeks to arrest participation decline in sport by providing inter‑school football competition for Islamic schools in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia, culminating in a playoff for the Bachar Houli Cup. The project will also work towards helping players transition into community football clubs and educating clubs to assist with the inclusion of Muslim players.
Organisation: Banyule City Council
Project Name: Our Mall – Our Place
Location: Rosanna
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The Bell Street Mall has the potential to be hub of activity, offering a place to embrace, share and celebrate diversity. For many of the Somali community it has become their local hub and gathering place, but for others they feel they have lost what was once a shared community place, adding to feelings of division and separation. This project will use a community development approach to build the capacity of the Mall Trader’s Association to increase participation in existing Mall events and to create a full calendar of additional programs that bring activity to the space. Local residents and community groups will be invited to participate in these events, familiarise themselves with the public space and engage with local businesses.
Organisation: Belgium Avenue Neighbourhood House
Project Name: Richmond ‘hARTmony’ Project
Location: Richmond
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project will encourage young people from the Richmond housing estate, who are potential leaders and positive role models, to engage in intensive mentoring workshops with skilled artists, musicians, film makers, event managers, social media, IT tutors, public relations and recreational workers. These skills will then be shared by the young leaders with the broader youth within the other groups operating within the estate and others attracted to participating in the project. The outcomes of these learned skills will be expressed in a series of events, an art exhibition, performances and displays at festivals to showcase their creative skills
Organisation: City of Melbourne – Artplay and Signal
Project Name: Re-Imagining Race: Responding to Racism through Art
Location: Melbourne
Amount: $49 530
Project Summary:
The project will develop partnerships with four culturally diverse school communities in the City of Melbourne and the City of Yarra, to make and share creative multimedia works about cultural diversity, race-based discrimination and social cohesion. The students participating in the project will learn new ways of viewing, relating and responding to cultural issues. This will benefit not just the students, but will flow out into school culture and the local communities. Activities include forums and art workshops.
Organisation: City of Wodonga
Project Name: Leading the Way Phase II
Location: Wodonga
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The broad aim of the “Leading the Way” project is to build a voice for multicultural communities in Wodonga so that the rest of the community can better understand them. Ultimately, it is anticipated that this will create positive relationships between participants, the communities they represent, and other residents of Wodonga. The project will run skill development sessions specific to establishing and managing an incorporated organisation.
Organisation: Council of International Students Australia
Project Name: I am not Australian, But I have an Australian Story (My Australian Story)
Location: Melbourne
Amount: $100 000
Project Summary:
The proposal seeks to improve the experiences of international students studying in Australia by improving the negative perception held by the Australian community. The project involves providing a number of large scale activities carried out nationally to trigger greater and more positive debate about international students. Through this national campaign the Australian community will be directed to a website that will contain professionally edited videos of young individuals telling their ‘Australian Story’ and only at the end will it be revealed that they are international students. The website will provide links to a database of international student related events, projects and initiatives that could benefit from involvement of the local community.
Organisation: Kids Thrive
Project Name: Kids Thrive ‘KIND’ – songs and stories to build cultural empathy
Location: South Melbourne
Amount: $49 000
Project Summary:
‘KIND’ is an arts based program creating opportunities for young children (aged 3-12), their families and the professionals who work with them, to engage in positive interactions and dialogue about racial and religious discrimination, cultural tolerance and empathy. The project will take place in the City of Hume and the activities include focus groups, song-making and storytelling workshops, facilitated conversions, professional development workshops, school based performances and a public concert.
Organisation: Migrant Information Centre (Eastern Melbourne)
Project Name: Windows to My World
Location: Box Hill
Amount: $44 850
Project Summary:
The project will address racism and intolerance between Australian born and refugee students and the lack of opportunities for students of different cultural backgrounds to interact. The project will work in three secondary schools, with high numbers of refugee students, in the City of Maroondah to create performance pieces to be shared in their own school, in other schools and also in the community. Each group will consist of refugee and Australian born students, who will work with a youth worker and theatre group to identify issues in their own school and community, explore solutions to racism and discrimination and create a play which shares their ideas with others.
Organisation: National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters’ Council
Project Name: Capacity Building through Community Radio
Location: Fitzroy
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project is aimed at increasing opportunities for participation for new and emerging communities’ in social and cultural life, building their capacity to have a voice and develop leadership skills and enabling community members to better inform and represent their communities, particularly in the media. The project will build links with and recruit participants from refugee and emerging communities, provide information sessions to participants about community radio and the opportunities and benefits that come with community media, develop a training program and train participants in community radio broadcasting, assist participants to plan, produce and establish their radio programs incorporating pre-recorded information and provide ongoing mentoring and content creation assistance to communities.
Organisation: Netball Australia
Project Name: One Netball
Location: Melbourne
Amount: $100 000
Project Summary:
The project aims to remove barriers to participation in netball for people, primarily female, from culturally diverse backgrounds. The project will employ a community engagement officer to develop and implement multicultural components of Netball’s National Participation Framework. The project will provide a pathway between settlement services and sport and consult and engage with key stakeholders to identify population groups that would be interested in engaging in netball, identify barriers, and link with netball’s state and territory member organisations, associations, external providers and schools to assist with program design. The project will conduct a pilot program in partnership with a Migrant Resource Centre or multicultural organisation to provide participants with the opportunity to develop netball skills, physical fitness, social skills, sportsmanship and an understanding of the game of netball. The pilot program will aim to include the broader community, clubs, schools etc in order to facilitate ongoing involvement.
Organisation: The North Melbourne Football Club
Project Name: The Huddle: Creating social cohesion through sport and recreation
Location: North Melbourne
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The Huddle is a joint initiative of the North Melbourne Football Club, the Scanlon Foundation and the Australian Multicultural Foundation which aims to improve the social cohesion of local communities through education, sport, recreation, job and skills training and more. This project to be delivered in North Melbourne, Kensington, Flemington and West Melbourne will increase opportunities for participation of newly arrived and migrant communities in sport, provide opportunities for volunteering, increase the capacity of young migrants and raise cross cultural awareness of organisations to enable them to provide increased sporting opportunities. The project aims to remove the physical and cultural barriers preventing young people, particularly from African backgrounds, from participating in sporting clubs and recreational facilities in and around North Melbourne.
Organisation: Westside Circus
Project Name: Tumbling Stories
Location: Brunswick
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
Newly arrived migrants (particularly Assyrian, Chaldean, Iraqi, Bhutanese and Somali) in Hume experience racially based discrimination and exclusion which is compounded by limited capacity to engage with the broader community due to low literacy levels, lack of confidence and lack of opportunities. This project will build on outcomes and achievements of a Brimbank model and will provide circus and literacy workshops to respond to the social development needs of newly arrived and refugee children aged 3-5 years, and their caregivers who have recently settled into the Hume municipality. In particular it will enable these members of the Hume area to interact with other community members, connecting people across cultures, racial backgrounds and religions. The project will also provide professional development courses with local educators and the development and publication of storybooks and a teacher’s resource.
ACT
Organisation: Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services of the ACT
Project Name: Harmony Players Program
Location: Canberra
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
This project will build on the successful Harmony Basketball program for migrant and refugee youth by recruiting young men and women to play basketball and soccer. Using the participants from the previous projects as mentors and coaches, the project will give young people the skills and confidence to participate in mainstream sports. The activities will assist in breaking down barriers, stereotypes and perceptions between the communities and with the Australian Federal Police, who will also be actively engaged in the project.
Organisation: Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia (FECCA)
Project Name: Harmony in the Workplace
Location: Canberra
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The proposal seeks to address failures in Australian workplace culture to recognise, promote and protect the value and benefits of cultural diversity. The need to address this issue is supported by the findings of FECCA’s annual community consultations and grassroots research which demonstrate that culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians are often operating at a significant disadvantage in the workplace. The project consists of the development of materials, including information manuals and user-friendly program plans, which will be used to engage with four-to-six mid-to-large size organisations with a view to creating a cultural shift in the way diversity is celebrated and promoted with their workplaces. The project will initially be established as a pilot.
NSW
Organisation: Australian Rugby League Commission
Project Name: In League – In Harmony
Location: Auburn
Amount: $47 500
Project Summary:
The project will use sport to break down barriers and reduce gang activity and increase the number of culturally diverse youth playing sport. The project will promote multiculturalism and acceptance of refugees in the wider community through school visits, rugby league skills development, goal setting and resilience sessions, Harmony Day events and Gala Days.
Organisation: Basketball Australia
Project Name: Engaging Women from Diverse Cultural Backgrounds in Basketball
Location: Sydney
Amount: $100 000
Project Summary:
The project will research and identify the specific barriers that are preventing women from participating in basketball. An initial workshop bringing together a number of cultural organisations, existing Sudanese Basketball groups, basketball associations and government (eg State Departments) will be used to identify what are the significant barriers, what strategies can be implemented to make local associations more inclusive; and which geographic areas are priorities. Pilot programs will be conducted in four identified priority regions focussing on engaging women in basketball and helping young women transition from sport at school to participating in local associations.
Organisation: Cabramatta Community Centre
Project Name: Global Choir Project
Location: Cabramatta
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project will bring together people of diverse nationalities, religions and races to develop and perform songs. The choir will learn to celebrate community cultures so as to better understand the experiences and beliefs of neighbours. Learning Australian songs and songs from other cultures/languages will encourage ongoing engagement and relationship building between diverse ethnic communities and the Australian community.
Organisation: Football United
Project Name: United for Diversity
Location: University of New South Wales, Randwick
Amount: $40 000
Project Summary:
This project will provide leadership and personal development through football coaching qualifications to 80 young persons from diverse cultural backgrounds, to enable them to deliver free football programs to 500 children in Western Sydney. While all youth at participating schools will be welcome to join, particular energy will be addressed to identify those who are at risk of disengagement, have leadership potential and/or are engaging with racially motivated anti-social behaviour.
Organisation: Goulburn Multicultural Centre
Project Name: Goulburn Multicultural Community Engagement Project
Location: Goulburn
Amount: $39 900
Project Summary:
The project will address tensions between long term Goulburn residents and the newly arrived communities by encouraging and mentoring relationships between long term residents and the new residents. Volunteers will be recruited from local schools, sporting clubs and community organisations to be paired up with an individual or family from one of the target communities. Mentoring activities might include providing assistance to access sporting activities, local clubs and groups, and general guidance on cooking and gardening in Australia. On-going support and training (formal and informal) will be provided on an individual basis to ensure relationships continue to be positive, supportive and appropriate.
Organisation: Parramatta District Rugby Union Football Club Inc
Project Name: Kick Racism into Touch Program
Location: Merrylands
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project will increase the number of culturally diverse events available in the Parramatta, Granville, Merrylands, Guildford, Liverpool, Blacktown, Baulkham Hills, Carlingford, and Ermington areas in an attempt to reduce the numbers of racial incidents that have been occurring. The project will promote the importance of social cohesion and the principles of unity, leadership and cultural tolerance. A number of flyers, banners and signs using high profile players will be produced for display at grounds within the district.
Organisation: Rugby Youth Foundation
Project Name: Multi-Cultural Youth Leadership Exchange
Location: Roseville
Amount: $49 500
Project Summary:
This project will address the well-documented issue of racial and cultural intolerance between Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander, African and Indigenous youth in the Parramatta and Blacktown local government areas. Leadership training for 100 youth from target backgrounds in three disadvantaged high schools will be provided. The trained youth will deliver weekly ‘Playing in Harmony’ rugby clinics in primary schools and develop their own ‘Living in Harmony’ seminars using video and photography.
Organisation: St George Community Centre
Project Name: Connecting Arncliffe: Building Social Cohesion in Greater Arncliffe
Location: Carss Park
Amount: $49 992
Project Summary:
The project will provide community planning workshops to address relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, the racist anti-Muslim sentiment in Arncliffe and the alienation of young Middle Eastern males. Activities include cultural competency workshops, theatre and photography workshops for youth, the establishment of a youth leadership group and weekly multicultural cooking lunches for seniors.
Organisation: SydWest
Project Name: Building Social Cohesion in Blacktown
Location: Blacktown
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project will provide an after hours outreach program in high risk locations for at-risk youth in particular from African, Filipino and Pacific Islander backgrounds. Activities include a creative arts program and the development of plays and musical performances to be showcased publicly. Leadership and cultural awareness sessions will also be provided for youth and adults.
Organisation: Western Sydney Football Club
Project Name: Greater Western Sydney Learning and Life Centre
Location: Rooty Hill
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project is seeking to provide ways to overcome the cultural, religious, financial and racial barriers to social inclusion for young people of multiple disadvantage in the Western Sydney area. The project will assist in the establishment of the Greater Western Sydney Learning and Life Centre. This centre will provide professionally-designed and relevant programs for children of recently-arrived migrants and the local community. The programs help build community capacity, promote multiculturalism and strengthen social cohesion across the community.
Organisation: Youth Off the Streets
Project Name: Lets Kick It: for diversity
Location: Mascot
Amount: $49 165
Project Summary:
The project will address the growing tensions between diverse cultural groups in the Blacktown area through promoting mutual respect, understanding and fair treatment for all. The project involves forming a soccer team of youth from diverse cultural backgrounds to enable them to develop relationships and networks with people outside of their cultural community. The team will receive leadership training and participate in other team building activities.
Qld.
Organisation: Centacare Cairns
Project Name: Multicultural Community Education Program
Location: Cairns
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
Due to the changing demographics of the Cairns community, tensions between emerging communities and the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander community are impacting on the community, refugee and migrant experiences, racism and discrimination. The project proposes to hold workshops across a number of primary and secondary schools to promote cultural diversity and strengthen relationships.
Organisation: Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland Ltd
Project Name: Multicultural Media Training Project
Location: West End
Amount: $49 000
Project Summary:
Many culturally diverse community organisations feel they are unable to get their opinion heard through the media resulting in misinformation and intolerance in the wider community. The project will address the issue by providing community organisations with practical skills and the capacity to better represent themselves in the media and the wider community. Training in writing media releases, completing video interviews and using social media sites will be provided and meetings with local media will be initiated. The project will deliver activities in key regional areas where diversity is growing, such as Cairns, Rockhampton and Townsville, as well as Brisbane.
Organisation: Lockyer Valley Regional Council
Project Name: Living Libraries
Location: Gatton
Amount: $19 500
Project Summary:
The Living Libraries project aims to develop awareness and tolerance in the Lockyer Valley through understanding. The understanding will lead to a community more accepting and supportive of it’s growing multicultural population. The project involves four people per session acting as a ‘living book’ to be borrowed by community members. The ‘living books’ will be available for loan for half and hour and participants will be able to ask questions to learn more about that person’s background and culture.
Organisation: Multicultural Communities Council Gold Coast
Project Name: The Gold Coast Youth Ambassador Project
Location: Gold Coast
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project will establish a mechanism that provides a platform for young people to be responsible for getting other people from their community and the wider community to collaborate and be interested to address issues related to cultural, racial and religious intolerance. The project will provide young people with opportunities to be heard and to learn about other cultures and values, their own values and how their values shape their views. Youth ambassadors from Australian, Pacific Islander, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Japanese, Korean and African backgrounds will be recruited for the project.
Organisation: Queensland Rugby Football League Limited
Project Name: QRL Harmony Program
Location: Milton
Amount: $47 500
Project Summary:
The project will encourage greater acceptance and understanding of the refugee population by the Logan local community. It will encourage greater integration of refugees in the community and community based activities through their increased understanding of Australian sporting culture. The project will use rugby league to break down social barriers for children and their parents by teaching the participants the basics of the game, providing an opportunity to practice and develop their skills and providing links to established clubs within their communities.
Organisation: Townsville Intercultural Centre Limited
Project Name: Supporting the Social Cohesion of Somali Youth and their Families
Location: Townsville
Amount: $48 000
Project Summary:
The project activities will focus on supporting Somali youth, specifically Somali girls, in adjusting to Australian school life and improving behaviour by helping them to interact socially with their peers in the school environment. The project will involve connecting the Somali youth with mainstream peers, sporting and other groups, other schools, parents and teaching staff. Workshops will focus on learning tolerance, relationship building, leadership skills, goal setting, future aspirations and careers.
SA
Organisation: Activate Community Services
Project Name: Welcome to Australia – International Students
Location: Adelaide
Amount: $100 000
Project Summary:
The project seeks to address the negative perception held by the Australian community towards international students. This is a well publicised issue that has received a lot of media attention over the last few years. The project involves the development of a mentoring program to build capacity of international students to establish support networks in their local communities. The project will be established as a pilot, working with universities in both regional areas and capital cities across Australia. It will engage volunteers to work with the students and provide support and links to the wider community. Through these activities it is expected that the wider community will be exposed to the benefits of having the students living and learning in Australia. The project will build into the national awareness strategy that is being developed by the Council of International Students of Australia (CISA) to change the perception of the public on a national and local level.
Organisation: Multicultural Communities Councils of South Australia
Project Name: Winning Together
Location: Woodville
Amount: $33 000
Project Summary:
The project seeks to address cultural intolerance within schools with the aim of drawing together a range of students to discuss and share their experiences and stories via their own creative means. The project aims to increase the sense of community within the schools and the families connected with the schools.
Organisation: Power Community Ltd
Project Name: Football and Cultural Awareness Program
Location: Alberton
Amount: $32 000
Project Summary:
Anti-social behaviour at the Kilburn Football and Cricket Club is resulting in cultural intolerance and tension between the club, the broader community and the local African community. The project will develop ongoing community linkages through a program which will encourage interaction between the African community and the Kilburn Football and Cricket Club, with the overall aim of increasing ongoing participation in the club by the African Community, thereby reducing cultural tensions. The program will also identify and develop two ongoing community coaches from the club who will continue to engage with the African community after this program.
Organisation: Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance Rehabilitation Service (STTARS)
Project Name: Knowing our rights & responsibilities and building connections
Location: Adelaide
Amount: $47 600
Project Summary:
STTARS will be working in partnership with the Bhutanese community to address issues of religious (Hindu) and traditional social division and intolerance. The project proposes to address the intra-community discrimination by providing opportunities for community members to learn through inter-community engagement and workshops. The project will build the capacity of the community members through a series of workshops, social outings and a retreat with the aim of reducing conflict and increasing social cohesion and participation in the wider community.
Tas.
Organisation: Kickstart Arts
Project Name: Mkono kwa Mkono (Hand in Hand) – Community Dance Project
Location: Hobart
Amount: $34 045
Project Summary:
The project will provide an opportunity for former refugees from Africa to participate in social and community life in Hobart, with an emphasis on youth but including people of all ages. It will also facilitate greater community knowledge and understanding of East African culture. This will be achieved through becoming involved in dance, storytelling, cooking and sporting activities hosted by one of Hobart’s largest high schools in partnership with other schools, sporting clubs, African community groups, TAFE, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, a youth health service, the Migrant Resource Centre and Kickstart Arts.
Organisation: Lenah Valley Community Association
Project Name: St Johns Orchard Karen Burmese Inclusion
Location: Hobart
Amount: $26 500
Project Summary:
This project will provide a communal gathering-place, garden plots, poultry farming and access to an orchard for the Karen Burmese community in Greater Hobart at an established community orchard and garden. The project will focus on skills development and information sessions, mentoring and support to community members to ensure ongoing sustainability. The project will also create linkages between the Karen and mainstream services in areas of identified need; and includes involvement from an already identified group of keen volunteers from the wider community.
Organisation: Northern Suburbs Community Centre
Project Name: Community through Diversity
Location: Launceston
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project will build social cohesion in a high recent settlement location by providing a communal place for humanitarian communities to build skills, capacity and connectivity to the wider local community through involvement in general community activities such as health information, gardening, craft, literacy and outings.
WA
Organisation: Australian Red Cross Society
Project Name: World Aware
Location: East Perth
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project aims to address the issue of marginalisation and social isolation experienced by refugee youth due to language religion, physical appearance and personal trauma. The leadership development program will use art-based workshops to showcase the youth’s talent. The activities aim to build confidence and empower this target group resulting in integration with the wider community.
Organisation: City of Stirling
Project Name: Cultural Fusion Project
Location: Stirling
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
Reports of inter-cultural tensions in the City of Stirling area has negatively impacted the wider Australian community, in particular residents in the Mirrabooka area, who feel unsafe in public spaces such as schools, bus stations and shopping centres. The project is an extension of the current Beatball project which brings together youth from diverse cultures including African Aboriginal, Afghan, Burmese, Iranian and Australian, on a weekly basis for a basketball tournament. This project will also target adults, bringing them together for monthly workshops.
Organisation: Edmund Rice
Project Name: The TWA Inclusion Project
Location: Mirrabooka
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
The project seeks to address the social isolation experienced by the new and emerging Twa Burundi community living in the City of Stirling and greater Perth Metropolitan SD. The project will first seek to build the capacity, social cohesion and integration of the Twa community. The project will focus on encouraging participants to become self-reliant in the community through interactive workshops and developing support networks with the wider community, government and community services. The proposed activities would also engage various communities from CaLD backgrounds, Aboriginal communities and the wider Australian community.
Organisation: ISHAR Multicultural Women’s Health Centre
Project Name: SVADBA
Location: Mirrabooka
Amount: $50 000
Project Summary:
Reports indicate that there are inter-cultural tensions between newly arrived communities and the Aboriginal Community residing in the City of Stirling area, particularly Mirrabooka. Current reports have shown that this has resulted in negative cultural stereotyping. In addition, individual families from different community groups are experiencing breakdowns following settlement in Australia as parents and children do not view their traditions in the same manner. The aim of this project is to promote acceptance, understanding and harmony among the multiple and diverse cultures that live in the City of Stirling. The activities will bring together older families from previous migration periods as well as newly arrived communities so that each can talk about their culture, learn from each other and share their traditional cultural values. The project aims to provide workshops to help the community become more accepting and non-discriminatory and supportive of other cultures. The activities will help participants focus more on the similarities rather than the differences between their cultures.
Organisation: Muslim Women Support Centre of WA
Project Name: Empowering Culturally Diverse Young Women
Location: Bentley
Amount: $49 850
Project Summary:
This project aims to break down barriers for young women from culturally diverse backgrounds allowing them to participate fully in community and leadership activities. It will build on the success of the Young Women’s Leadership Program in 2010-12 by providing a revised program working with new participants. The leadership program will build the confidence and skills of young women from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, connect participants with engaging community organisations and projects, create greater awareness and understanding between participants and community groups of different cultures and religions, and provide greater knowledge and awareness in community/youth groups about how to engage with young people from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Organisation: Tuart Hill Primary P&C
Project Name: Harmony Day Recipe Collection (Hungry for Culture)
Location: Tuart Hill
Amount: $9856
Project Summary:
There is a lack of participation from parents from diverse cultures (particularly Middle Eastern and African parents) in school activities, resulting in the isolation of the families within the school community. The school has also identified problems for these children achieving positive results at school. This project intends to build on the previous project by promoting the benefits of living in a culturally diverse society. This will be achieved by encouraging the participation of parents to share recipes and stories from their specific cultures. These stories and recipes will be published in a Harmony Day Recipe Collection (Hungry for Culture) that will be distributed to the school community.
