SMRC news

DIVERSITY RESPECT EMPOWERMENT PARTICIPATION RESILIENCE

Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre, 39 Clow St Dandenong VIC 3175, Ph: 03 9767 1900 www.smrc.org.au

Introducing Travis Heeney, Managing Director

Travis has a passion for supporting and empowering people to remain living as independently as possible. This inspired Travis to study Social Work and after graduating from RMIT with Honours, he began his career in community services, advocating for others’ rights to ensure their dignity and respect.

Travis’ career commenced as a Case Manager supporting people who were aged or experi-enced a significant disability to remain living independently at home, who would have ordinari-ly needed high level residential care. Travis then wanted to contribute in a broader way, so early in his career he sought, and was successful in gaining management positions at North-ern Health, Villa Maria and St Vincent’s Health, before transitioning into Local Govern-ment. The community focus and diversity of Local Government appealed to Travis, and he went on to work at Hume City Council as Manager Aged Services and Public Health, White-horse City Council as Manager Home and Community Care, before moving to Mitchell Shire Council as Director Community and Recreation, and following an organisational restructure, Director Sustainable Communities. Most recently Travis has also undertaken periods as Chief Executive Officer.

Travis is honoured to work with Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre as we continue to prosper in this new era of community service provi-sion. Travis is driven by a desire to develop com-munities and people. He thrives on innovation and improvement and empowering employees and community to achieve their full potential. Travis is committed to ensuring that services and infrastructure are well planned to provide a strong foundation for engaged and healthy communities, now and into the future. He thrives on having an involvement in all aspects of the organisation’s operations and is passionate about the delivery of efficient and effective services. To ensure his own professional growth, Travis has also com-pleted the Company Director’s Course at the Australian Institute for Company Directors, and has been an active member of Australian Institute of Company Directors, Local Government Profes-sionals and Municipal Association Victoria.

Newsletter # 52 autumn 2017

Harmony Day 2017

To celebrate Harmony Day the SMRC volunteers celebrated with a shared lunch. Everyone bought something from their culture to share with the group. Several volunteers did a short presentation on their home country, Hungary, Mauritius, El Salvador, it was wonderful to learn about the history, culture and customs of other countries.

From the Chairperson

Welcome back to our newsletter, the first in a while. As you will be aware, SMRC has been going through some changes. The Board wants to thank those members who supported us and to thank our staff and volunteers for continuing to provide high quality services to the migrant and refugee community, which is the main focus of this organisation. Thank you to those who responded to the survey regarding the merge proposal. This was a matter of raising awareness and giving some positions to consider. While there was a wide range of answers and questions raised, it was plain that members are only just now taking this idea seriously. There

was a staff survey carried out at the same time. That too resulted in broad responses. I believe that in this region it’s highly unlikely we would stop providing services to migrants and refugees, but to win contracts we may have to diversify service operations. Due to the weight of urgent and important business of the recent months, we’ve had eleven Board meetings already this year, not counting sub committees. The Board has been focused on ensuring improvements continue in administration, that vacancies are filled and service delivery is unhindered. As you would be aware, our acting CEO giv-ing notice began a mass of activity. The Board has lost no time in recruiting Managing Director, Travis Heeney. On behalf of the Board I take this opportunity to welcome Travis in joining the team at SMRC. I would also like to thank Despina for the hard work she carried out during a difficult time and to thank all my fellow Board members. Earlier this year we welcomed Malik, Lynette, Pravin and Alice— in the appointed position representing Maurice Blackburn solicitors. I thank them, along with Helen, Hafez, Ismail and Wicki for their hard work and dedication. You can read more about them on our website. After much-needed policy development, SMRC will soon start a new strategic plan for the coming years. Also, SMRC has joined the ‘Racism Stops with Me’ campaign, inviting all Australi-ans to reflect on what they can do to counter racism wherever it happens. And don’t forget to visit our Facebook page. Thanks for your interest and involvement. We look forward to meeting you at the next AGM. Brian Oates JP

National Youth Week

Each April, during school holi-days, this event offers many activities for young people. This year the week provided a springboard for SMRC to commence several new youth and family programs. SMRC was a partner in the ‘Amazing Race,’ an inter-agency col-laboration coordinated by South East Community Links and their young leaders. Teams raced across Dan-denong to complete activities, learning, visits to youth agen-cies and having fun. There were 60 competitors, while over 250 people participated in the finish line carnival fes-tivities and listened to live music performed by local young people. SMRC also provided Cardinia Shire Council’s event with some multicultural flair, encouraging young leaders run-ning the event to find ways of increasing harmony and celebrating cultural diversity. The young people chose to replace adverts at the start of the movie with three short films cele-brating diversity and multiculturalism. These short films were made by young people across the nation in 2016.

Other programs included our Homework Support Program and the announcement of the ‘My Mother – My Friend’ program, a partnership with the Australian Hazara Women’s Friendship Network, with a grant from the Victorian Women’s Benevolent Trust. This pro-gram throughout Term 2 focuses on strengthening the bond between Afghan mothers and their teenage daughters because settling in Australia can bring many challenges. This pro-gram marked the end of another successful program, the ‘Asylum Silk Roads - Art Project’ involving stencil art, t-shirt printing and silhouette portraits. A partnership with Asylum Silk

Roads/Melbourne Artists for Asylum which allowed young people to learn and express themselves creatively alongside adult peers. It was held in conjunction with SMRC’S ‘Learning Space’ so young people and their families could attend and learn together.

Last but not least National Youth Week (NYW) marked the start of our Youth Crea-tive Writing Competition, open for a month from April 4th, with winners an-nounced on May 21st, on the National Day for Cultural Diversity and Dialogue, at the One World Festival of Sports and Culture, an interagency and community event coordinat-ed by SMRC. The competition is supported by Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation and the City of Greater Dandenong Libraries and was a great way to link NYW and the World Day for Cultural Diversity and Dialogue.

Fusion of cultures

This month we celebrated a fusion of cultures in the City of Greater Dandenong, which included Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, Serbian, Sudanese and Croatian. Our entertainers were Vietnam-ese, Chinese and the participants themselves. Sharing cultures helps bring our various com-munities together. It provides a source of strength and an opportunity to meet other people re-gardless of their background. Click to look at the video on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/134648416667456/videos/1048299508635671/

Sports clinic at annual soccer tournament

On 21st May, SMRC, in partnership with City Of Greater Dandenong, Monash Health and South East Community Links, hosted our annual diversity event with a difference. The One World Festival of Sports and Culture included a soccer tournament, four free ‘come and try’ sports clinics in volleyball, basketball, badminton and table tennis, and the winners of the Creative Writing competition were an-nounced (see page 6). The Lions Club provided a sausage sizzle, with a never-ending variety of hal-al sausages, while the Maya dance group from El Salvador provided entertainment during the break. Several attendees commented that this was the first time they had tried sausages and really enjoyed the experience. The Festival provided an opportunity for participants and their families to have fun and learn from one another, while celebrating our diversity and culture.

Winners (adults): 1st PAK Hazara, 2nd AFC Koolack

Winners (youth): 1st United Boys, 2nd Umak 69

Youth Creative Writing Competition

Our inaugural Youth Creative Writing Competition commenced during National Youth Week and concluded on the World Day of Cultural Diversity and Dialogue. Winners were announced at the ‘One World’ Festival of Sports and Culture on Sunday May 21st.

Many thanks to partner agencies Casey-Cardinia Libraries, and Living and Learning Libraries Greater Dandenong. Competition judges were Celia Rice, Branch Manager of Hampton Park Library, and Bill Collopy, SMRC Manager and published author.

Winners in the 18-25 Age category: Equal 1st prize: Rukmini Venkat and Fatima Ibrahemi. Runner-Up: Wida Tausif.

Winners in the 12-17 Age category:

1st prize: Xenia Sanut, 2nd prize: Sharon Jeikishore, 3rd prize: Luqman Khan. Highly Commended: Hasena Sohrabi, Feriba Eftekhari, Sumayya Hussain Zada. Highly Commended Poetry Award: Belques Sohrabi

Due to the success of this competition and the great feedback we received, we hope it will be an annual competition to help celebrate the talents and voices of young people across Greater Dandenong, Casey and Cardinia.

Excerpt from one of the winning entries: ’My Journey’ by Wida Tausif

Where do I begin about my journey? I am a lover of life, a fighter for humanity. My story begins as a

li�le girl with hopes and dreams. Born in the war, and her family had to immigrate to a neighbouring

country when she was only 40 days old. Her des$ny was to spend her childhood in a different country.

She was ready to start school. Her family wanted her to learn like any other parent would want for

their child. But she didn’t expect her school to be a fearful environment...

Two finalists, Rukmini Venkat and Wida Tausif with Crystal Naismith, SMRC Youth Engagement worker

HIPPY publishing

The HIPPY (Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters) group in Dandenong has been captivated by the magic of self-publishing. Here is a summary of recent activity and some samples of community stories presented in full colour paperback format. A Kids’ Own teaching artist guided our program parents and their children how to produce text and illustrations. We included individual and collaborative books on various themes of the parents’ choice.

www.northwind.com

Care workers in your language

Our bi-lingual workers provide personal care and home help in over

50 different languages to meet the needs of clients from culturally

and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Our workers are all qualified in Aged Care and most speak at least

one language additional to English .

Languages in high demand: Greek, Italian, Bosnian, Croatian, Ser-

bian, Dari, Polish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese

Suburbs in high demand: Caulfield, Bulleen, Narre Warren, Knox-

field, Ferntree Gully, Bentleigh, Mentone, Box Hill

For more information, call on 03 9767 1909 or diversecare@smrc.org.au

Volunteers wanted

We value and need the skills and expertise of volunteers in many of our programs. We provide train-ing and support to all our volunteers. Programs that currently require volunteers are:

Social Support, includes friendly visiting and Community Visitors Program to elderly migrants

Homework Support Program, includes tutors to assist young refugee students (primary and secondary) — after school with their homework

Settlement Group program support for newly arrived refugees

If you would like to volunteer for any of these, please email us volunteer4smrc@smrc.org.au.