Sambusa za Tanzania (courtesy: kumbukumbu cards)
Showing posts with label Australia Multicultural Access & Equity Policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia Multicultural Access & Equity Policy. Show all posts
Monday, 30 November 2020
Invited to Taste Kilimanjaro African Perth EATS @ Community Mirrabooka Markets
Join a Taste of Kilimanjaro-African EATS @ Community Mirrabooka Markets. As year 2020 comes to a close, welcome to sample international food including our Kilimanjaro African Food, featured by a Tanzanian women group of Perth, WA.
Occasion: The initiative is part of the Community Mirrabooka Markets featuring International Food; Multicultural Arts & Crafts; Local Services; Family Fun & Entertainment in a COVID-safe set up.
(Pilau photo image Courtesy: Swahili recipies1.blogspot.com)
Great Tanzanian culinary EATS on serve not to be missed – the famous Swahili Pilau with Kachumbari, mouth-watering sambusa bites, the delectable Vitumbua (Tanzanian Sweet Rice Buns) and much more.
Delectable vitumbua (rice buns) (Courtesy: Image: gramho.com)
When: 17th December 2020
Time: 4pm – 9pm
Where: The Square Mirrabooka, Yirrigan Drive Carpark
Contact: kilimanjaro.africanfood@gmail.com ; pendobtm@gmail.com
Future Catering Orders: The Kilimanjaro African Food takes catering orders for private and business functions via kilimanjaro.africanfood@gmail.com
Tuesday, 30 June 2020
Victoria Covid19 Outbreak and Policy Response to Migrant Diversity
Despite Australia’s great success in containing Covid-19, the recent community outbreak in Victoria Melbourne suburbs with higher levels of migrants raises concern about some gaps in pro-active engagement and planning tailored to deliver culturally appropriate public healthcare responses.
On Monday and Tuesday 75
and 64 new cases respectively are reported. Affected areas are detailed on the
Government link: Government Link
The Victoria Premier also just announced this afternoon 10
Melbourne postcodes involving many suburbs are going on lockdown as per Premier Press Conference.
Most Australian
States have reported “0” outbreaks over the last few weeks, in a few cases only
single digits. So while we are all wishing Victoria the very best outcome, we
are wondering what is going on there? And are other states at potential risk?
The Victoria
Government confirmed today that genomic sequencing has just shown
the recent source of spread specifically came from hotel quarantine sites where
travellers are kept. The infection controls at these sites failed resulting in
hotel staff picking up Covid-19 from returning travellers and then spreading to
families (Press Conference: Victoria Premier)
This verifies media
reports over the last two weeks that people may have been moving around, some
unaware they were infectious.
It also raises
question that while Governments were rightly early on focussing on reorganising
how hospital and GP medical sites interacted with the public, how much thought
went into non-medical sites such as hotels for quarantined people?
Particularly, who was thinking about hotel staff such as security guards and
others?
For instance,
Governments rightly saw it fit to put in place Telehealth Medicare payments for
our medical GPs to safeguard their practices and patients from infections. Also
some states offered their healthcare workers on clinical frontline tackling
Covid-19 free accommodation options away from their home to minimise passing
infections to family members.
Now let’s turn to
security guards and other precariously employed staff at hotel sites
accommodating quarantined travellers. What risk identification strategies were
undertaken early on? And significantly what mitigation measures were put in
place to minimise acquiring and passing on infections to families and
community?
 |
| Hotel Security Guard: image Courtesy Shutterstock |
How much were issues of
frontline hotel staff taken into account at planning level?
It is not uncommon to
hear that people working in these sites hotels and hospitality in general their
working conditions tend to be low. And we can only imagine the precariousness
when some such as security guards are sent by contracting agencies.
Could it be that we
have been somewhat overlooking need for thorough mitigation measures for lowly
and precariously employed workers who sometimes tend to include large numbers
of migrants?
This is not to take
away the amazing measures that the Fed Government has put in place such as the
doubling of Jobseekers payments or the Job Keeper payments. These remain
historical and benefit people across population groups.
For those with
“policy” hats, it helps if we reflect deeper on theoretical debates about
public goods, private goods and mixed goods, and the justifications why we may
decide a certain issue require attention.
In this case, we
should not neglect that a hotel security guard and his family need as much
protection. Otherwise Covid-19 could be spread far and wide from hotel
parameters to community sites. The working conditions of a security guard are
essential. We have seen this issue before with aged care workers in Nursing
Homes, Baggage Airport Handlers and such.
I also think
guaranteeing paid sick leave to precariously employed workers if they have
confirmed Covid-19 cases unfortunately does not go far enough. How about the
impacts when they go about to work with flu-like symptoms or when they are
waiting for test outcomes? If aged care cases are to go by this is how some
have passed on Covid-19 to others.
Again to those doing
policy, surely there are “positive externalities” that come about and benefit
the whole community if you ensure hotel staff and their security guards, food
delivery people, casual aged care people are reasonably renumerated. Otherwise
we all as a community pay some price such as the reimposition of Melbourne
lockdowns, impact on business, impact on population mental wellbeing and so
forth.
Although Governments
are clearly doubling effort to stem the tide in Victoria, there are also
reports that Governments could have done more to consult and collaborate with
communities so that Governments could benefit from bottom-up knowledge perspectives.
The national Peak
migrant body FECCA reported that the Government engagement with migrant
communities across Australia was inadequate.
The Government’s own
Expert Panel, the National COVID-19 Health and Research Advisory Committee noted
that the community feedback indicated that Government
engagement occurred "on an ad-hoc basis or not at all" (SBS).
The Panel:
Warned the Federal Government of a
"missed opportunity" to prevent coronavirus outbreaks in high-risk
groups like migrant communities, several weeks before a spike of cases in
Victoria [Reference…….]
Further, according to the ABC the Expert Report released on 21 May 2020
- Pinpointed that migrants and refugees were one of the groups at-risk of acquiring Covid-19 and unknowingly spreading it as well.
- Said migrants are more likely to have a chronic disease and miss out on important health information
- FECCA identified state and federal governments’ collective failure to engage with community leaders
- Band-Aid afterthought solutions are used instead of carefully designed policy and program responses to migrant communities
- Lack of willingness to intentionally draw important input from vulnerable members of the community early on to ensure solutions are inclusive and designed appropriately
Also, according to
the The Conversation online
newspaper, ‘’spatial concentration” seems to be a factor in most of the
Melbourne suburbs associated with the rise in new Covid-19 cases. “People in overcrowded or unaffordable or
insecure housing may have less control over their immediate environment and
less capacity to isolate themselves” (The Conversation 29 June 2020).
People on low incomes could be under pressure to attend work
despite feeling unwell to meet their everyday expenses. The high cost of living
does not simply go away just because you manage to negotiate rent reduction
with a Landlord (The Conversation 29 June 2020). For more info see The Conversation Link on: Overcrowding and Housing Affordability Stress-Melbourne.
The Melbourne
lockdown starts in a few hours. The extensive community testing blitz continues
with public health staff knocking at homes in suburbia with reports some people
are refusing to be tested. And we now know the Premier for Victoria is putting
in a place a Judicial Inquiry to
look at look at how infection control breaches took place involving hotel
quarantine staff (See SBS Link for Victoria Premier Press Conference.
I am tempted to make
some suggestions. But even as I do, and as restrictions are eased in my state in
the west of Australia, I am left with a lingering feeling that “There go many
of us but by Grace God”. Our hearts across the country are with Victoria.
Suggestions
- Forced test if are to occur should be of non-invasive type such as Saliva test. This may foster trust than forced internal swabs, ethically better to spit sample in a container especially if person is forced.
- Judicial inquiry being commissioned by Victoria Premier should look at how vulnerable frontline roles as security guards, hotel workers or whatever are protected from contracting Covid-19 and passing to their families. But this should not be an exercise in transferring risk to these precariously employed people
- Just as the nation gives incentives for medical GPs to receive Telehealth payments, consider how you incentivise these lowly paid workers such as contracted security guards and hotel staff at quarantine sites.
- Casual workers with flu-like symptoms should be considered for paid leave and not wait until they tested and proved as Covid-19 positive. If Australia focuses on simply compensating those with proven Covid-19, we run the danger of having some people with flu-like symptoms turn up at work and spread the virus.
- Migrant community engagement should not be simply reduced to language translation – there is more to it than that. Mere language translation strategy runs the danger of simplifying things to a ‘white’ mainstream Western lens.
- A public health approach must pro-actively include culturally targeted strategies from the beginning, not in a reactive way as an afterthought.
References
The Conversation. Overcrowding and affordability stress: Melbourne’s COVID-19 hotspots are also housing
crisis hotspots 29
June 2020, https://theconversation.com/overcrowding-and-affordability-stress-melbournes-covid-19-hotspots-are-also-housing-crisis-hotspots-141381
ABC, Author: Stephanie Dalzell. Government warned of coronavirus 'missed
opportunity' to protect migrant communities before Victorian spike. 24 June
2020. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-24/government-warned-failing-engage-migrant-communities-coronavirus/12384800
The New Daily. Quarantined Australians face testing
crackdown amid reports of refusals. 26 June 2020. https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/coronavirus/2020/06/26/quarantined-testing-hotels-virus/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PM%20Extra%20-%2020200626
SBS, Government rubbishes reports migrant communities weren't
included in coronavirus response. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/government-rubbishes-reports-migrant-communities-weren-t-included-in-coronavirus-response
FECCA
[Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils] CALD Resources for COVID-19: http://fecca.org.au/coronavirus/
Victoria
Translated Corona Virus Resources for People from Culturally and Linguistically
Diverse Backgrounds. https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/translated-resources-coronavirus-disease-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR1Pk8iNCH6gxMT4VWGKDcGMUCDTY0l1PADeerWynPH9yQ7ZQ_4toihHj7w
Premier
for Victoria. Statement from the Premier. 20 June 2020. https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/statement-from-the-premier-45/
Premier
for Victoria, Statement from the
Premier. 25 June 2020. https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/statement-from-the-premier-46/
National COVID-19 Health and
Research Advisory Committee. https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/leadership-and-governance/committees/national-covid-19-health-and-research-advisory-committee#:~:text=The%20National%20COVID%2D19%20Health,project%20support%20for%20the%20Committee.
The Conversation, Overcrowding
and affordability stress: Melbourne’s COVID-19 hotspots are also housing
crisis hotspots, 29
June 2020, https://theconversation.com/overcrowding-and-affordability-stress-melbournes-covid-19-hotspots-are-also-housing-crisis-hotspots-141381
Sunday, 4 February 2018
Victoria Ethnic Youth ‘Gangs’ Debate
Unless completely engrossed in the end of
the year festivities, you can’t have missed the media downpour that African or
Sudanese youth ‘gangs’ were wreaking havoc in Metropolitan Melbourne. Going by
media images, like many I thought it is absolutely unacceptable to damage property
or be oblivious to other’s sense of comfort and safety as they sip their coffee
down the road. That notwithstanding, it is startling how political expedience made
use of this space for its own ends and washed its own hands.
As the news developed, it emerged that
actually the youth involved are bred right here in Australia! They were not
raised in Africa. If that is the case, you would think we would also be looking
at what factors right here in our Australian backyard were implicated. How is
it that school-age looking children were not in school or various
post-secondary placements?
It also came to light that these Sudanese-Australian
youth though troubled and out of control, were not gangs - they did not fit the
definition. One community leader told the ABC’s The Drum that how on earth can youth that are troubled be called
gangs when they had no structure, rules, purpose or leader?
Some in the media and political circles remained undeterred. This
is despite the fact that in the past the Australian Government has questioned the
veracity of sweeping claims that tend to be made about there being youth gangs
here. http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi167.pdf
Beware, Such Narratives Are
Not New
Media narratives of youth gangs are not new
in Australian. The 1990s come to mind when there was an outcry of so called
Asian and Lebanese youth gangs and such. When these stories take off the storm
is palpable, not least partly fuelled by politicians who reduce selective
anti-social incidences to ethnicity. Some analysts recently expressed suspicion
that some federal government leaders were more interested in lending assistance
to electoral wins in the upcoming Victoria elections this year.
Learning Working Strategies
I heard one community commentator on ABC
say the Sudanese community was also keen to learn ways that other communities
have dealt with these issues before. My first thought went to an amazing ABC’s
Sudanese Australian story about a basketball program. Communities are capable
of amazing stuff.
In June 2017 we saw a brilliant young
Sudanese leader in Western Sydney involved in transforming lives of Sudanese
youth through his basketball initiative. As the ABC Australian Story reported, “American
coaches regularly attend tournaments here to scout for talent and 14 of Mayor's
players have been recruited to the USA.” Link: http://www.abc.net.au/austory/shooting-for-the-stars-promo/8643530
Get this - USA coaches come to Sydney
scouting for young talent from this group. Some of the answers appear so close
to home! This is community-initiated and run. Conveniently, it never occurred
to federal politicians that they could be supporting these kinds of activities
that have demonstrated a proven record both keeping some youth out of trouble,
and delivering amazing outcomes.
Now, I have had some exposure to Australia’s
human services set up including youth and community work. If any mainstream professional
program was producing deliverables of the kind facilitated by this young man, I
doubt it will go without funding or unnoticed by government. You can only
wonder what other worthy community initiatives and ideas that deserve support never
get a look in.
It is concerning in my view that government
systems are largely preoccupied with their top-down systems and solutions and can
lose sight about place and context. Unfortunately existing top-down model
designs far removed from everyday experiences of youth in their schools,
communities, streets and the world of employment and training may run the risk of
reproducing mono-centric programs that are less effective in supporting
youth-at-risk within migrant communities.
Of course African-Australian communities
are largely resilient folk who don’t just sit by despite common challenges that
they face, not uncommon for emerging migrant communities. It is heartening to catch
media glimpses that the communities mentioned in recent times are closely engaging
with their State government, including Victoria Police and some local entities
in finding solutions.
There are other agencies that can play a
part here though.
Government Responsibilities
and Resources
So it is also high time to draw attention
that the federal Australian government too has responsibilities and resources
that are crucial in supporting individuals and communities. Missing from the public
media debate (about so called youth gangs) thus far is any notion that federal
agencies had any role to play in prevention or reduction of anti-social incidences
we saw!
While the role of Victoria Police is
important, the over-emphasis of Police services as a panacea for ‘fixing’ youth
ills seemed to obscure the responsibilities of many federal government
departments. Yet, from what I picked up on the national media, the same federal
Politicians seemed unaware that their own federal departments/ agencies have a
role to play! Such is the state of politics.
It is fair to say at a federal level multicultural
policy has in many ways fallen off the policy agenda on both sides of the politics
(i.e. Liberal and Labor). As a result, this may have a bearing on the extent
that Canberra bureaucracy delivers and meets its own obligations in respect of migrant
youth-at-risk within emerging communities across the country.
A number of federal departments are vested
significant resources for settlement supports, employment and training,
education, family support, strengthening social cohesion, etc. Mind you,
African-Australians are tax-payers too. However, affected communities need to be
asking governments to also meet their responsibilities in using existing
allocated resources to strengthen communities and support our youth-at-risk.
I did a bit of research, here are some
suggestions mostly at what the Feds can offer, and added a couple of points on
States.
Department of Social
Services - DSS
If you browse the DSS website you will see
that it has an important role in supporting individuals and families by providing ‘grants
and funding for organisations providing services for families.’ And “promote
stronger families and more resilient communities by developing civil society
and by providing family and community services.”
It’s worth finding out how those NGOs they
fund target and outreach African youth.
If not, hey try some dialogue with higher
ups to see how such funding and services can be tailored to build capacities
and strengthen African youth.
Look at what exactly is being done to
engage this at-risk group. To what extent is funding earmarked for such groups?
And what models are used to work with this group around settlement, parenting
and strengthening communities?
If at all, are the models used appropriate
in supporting parents who are parenting children in Australia? Is there any
recognition that you need appropriate and effective engagement, funding and
program structure aligned with context? This is so that governments or their contracted
NGOs are mindful putting in place models that will be responsive to the needs
of youth-at-risk?
Websites with clues on resource info:
As important, DSS maintains Action Plans as
you can see from their website – I have pasted links here for community benefit.
DSS Lead Role in
Coordinating Access & Equity
Another thing - did you know that under current government arrangements
DSS has responsibilities ‘As the lead
agency for the Multicultural Access
and Equity Policy, support Australian
Government agencies, including DSS, to
implement and report on their multicultural access and equity activities’
(I have emphasised this role in bold font). Their website has this to say:
The Multicultural Access and Equity Policy is also about ensuring that Australian Government
programs and services meet the needs of all Australians, regardless of their
cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
What exactly is this agency doing at
present to ensure that federal Government programs and services meet the needs of
these vulnerable youth and their families regardless of their cultural and
linguistic backgrounds? Which groups are they engaging? Who is getting
this tax-payer funding and who is overlooked? It is worth a trail – I mean engaging
this agency productively.
For African community facilitators involved
with the youth, if you don’t see bureaucracy or those mainstream providers they
fund outreaching and connecting with your communities, then take the first
step. Better still, before doing that, read their action plans so you are more
prepared.
As we know, advocating for access and
equity and securing resources that can be translated into responsive programs
is hard work.
Ensure you are also supported with people
trained in human services such as social and community work, youth work and
social work. Getting funding is not the only difficulty. Convincing a system
dominated by mono-centric knowledge base to take account of diversity in how
they structure programs is a big part of this work.
I am aware it is probably even much tougher
these days for emerging communities to pursue systemic advocacy and lobbying
for effective government inclusive practices. Besides, federal government long
cleansed out skilled policy and community funding that used to fund bottom-up
initiatives in all states towards supporting collective advocacy using
bottom-up methods.
Department of Human Services (DHS)
The Department of Human Services says on its website that it
provides supports through organisations it funds through National Partnerships.
https://www.humanservices.gov.au/organisations/community/family-organisations
Given it’s the responsibilities and
resources vested with DHS, surely it has potential to fund a flexible
at-risk-youth program that engages the sorts of youth we saw on Tele?
This can include outreaching strategies
using community development processes and engages with individuals and groups.
Needless to say for this to work, allow skilled workers/facilitators to engage
with youth from ‘where they are at’. By all means ask for outcomes (ala
deliverables/ KPIs). But money will be served if we don’t simply replicate mono-cultural
programs that fail to address situations and issues that the youth are facing.
When I last looked at DHS website it currently
lists issues such as DV, distress, self-harm, homelessness and child wellbeing.
Somewhere here, how hard is it for the bureaucracy to consider migrant youth-at-risk?
How hard is that to fit under ‘wellbeing’? I suspect there will be many
community stakeholders, youth workers and social workers versed with settlement
transitions available to contribute innovative ideas to programs that have potential
to work for this group.
I also notice DHS focus on language
translation as a means to promote access. Okay, language is important, but
these are African or Sudanese-Australian kids bred right here in Australia. Presumably
some are pretty across with the Aussie lingo. In any case, we have long known
that for emerging communities examining the model we use to promote access is
an important factor.
Also here is another DHS link aimed at supporting individuals,
families and communities.
Education/ Schools
Again, the youth on rampage seen on Tele
looked like school-age-children or slightly older! We know from the history of
migrant settlement that schools, the education system and learning environment
as a whole play a major part in long-term settlement outcomes. So it’s worth
asking what sort of school experiences they had. How are they being proactively
connected to post-secondary options or senior campuses? If they are at-risk, is
it not better to fund a program with an outreach component.
Who has what responsibilities between
States and the Feds? How best to work collaboratively and positively with
parents?
State Responsibilities - Departments of
Communities/Families
There is so much more that various
Departments of Communities/Families (names vary according to State) can
pro-actively do in each state to support emerging migrant communities. We have
known for a very long time that ‘new’ migrant parents come with strong
parenting experiences from countries of origin.
It is common sense that if parents come
from non-Western societies they may require particular supports to complement to
their already amazing capacities they show as they support their children to navigate
through what for some parents is a new cultural and social set up. This is one
area of great concern – the trend has been a shift back to mono-centric
thinking. Strategic thinking has for a long time simply focused at intervening
on individual instances of abuse or neglect.
An important layer about community building
and family support appear long forgotten.
While some NGOs get some funding to work
with families, often this work is well after an event such as where care & protection
orders are in place. Why not spare some
resources for community work/ community development with groups that need
support? It appears some departments remain caught up in the neo-liberal culture
and models which in some areas are proving ineffective and inefficient.
These issues are rarely simply about resources,
but as much about questions of how we deploy existing resources, and the power
exercised by those who make decisions about how they allocate resources.
Federal Department of Jobs and Small Business
This Transition to Work
program looks interesting. As noted on the government website below:
Transition to Work is a new service to support young people aged 15-21
on their journey to employment. The service will provide intensive,
pre-employment support to improve the work-readiness of young people and help
them into work (including apprenticeships and traineeships) or education. https://www.jobs.gov.au/transition-work
Again, the questions to ask is, are these
programs outreaching and engaging at-risk migrant youth? Transition programs
are a critical part of the link if they are appropriately structured and
targeted. It is also crucial to remember that strategies used to outreach and
engage vulnerable youth may vary from those used every day in reaching the
cream of youth undergoing transition. If government funding and delivery models
are less mindful of barriers faced by some groups at-risk, you end up creaming
and producing results only for those that are simply easy to reach and service.
For communities that are blamed and
stigmatised by some in positions of power, it doesn’t hurt pursuing dialogue
with your government reps about how programs such as Transition to Work can be effectively designed and delivered to
support youth whose transitional needs appear not to be understood or
neglected.
‘Nothing New under the Sun’
I am not sure how useful this is, but maybe
worth a mention! As indicated, other waves of migrants during late 1980s and
1990s experienced similar challenges such as those we see today.
In the early 1990s I piloted a federal-funded
employment and training program to identify and support at-risk-youth from
Asian and Latin American background. The program was based in Northbridge with
the then Step One Youth Agency and targeted youth across WA metropolitan.
The flexibility in the model enabled
engagement with emerging community groups, Intensive Language Centres (English as an
Additional Language), mainstream schools, Senior Campuses, AMES,
federal-funded employment agencies. Another colleague facilitated another pilot
in Fremantle targeting young women. We had pilots variously structured based on
the locational and population situations.
Identifying and running such community-based
pilots targeting at-risk groups benefited from the higher level leadership of
those NGO organisations that were keen to break new ground. Another significant
factor, Australia had a Youth Bureau under the then Department of Employment
and Training and Youth Bureau - DEETYA in Canberra! This government Youth
Bureau was instrumental in commissioning and monitoring these nation-wide
projects. The pilot learnings were also intended to inform their employment and
training policies.
It is hard to say who has the federal youth
policy brief anymore.
During the mid 1990’s we also held summits
looking at various aspects of migrant youth-police relations mainly Asian,
Middle Eastern youth, etc.
Governments had committed themselves to State
& National Summits exploring migrant youth-police relations. Processes
started with State Summits that culminated into a National Summits. Some dot points
about some aspects of these forums:
·
State summits included Police Services hierarchy
and their junior staff, 100 migrant youth reps, relevant State migrant Peak
body and also mainstream youth Peak body represented by their skilled professional
staff.
·
Elaborate prior thought and planning involving
experienced reps from Police Services, State multicultural Peak, mainstream
youth peak and skilled policy and youth staff from NGO sector.
·
A State Reference or Steering Group involving
Police Services, State Migrant Peak body, mainstream youth Peak, multicultural
policy and youth staff from NGO sector undertook extensive prior work laying
collaborative ground rules
·
State Summit preceded by thought through grassroots
engagement and consultation, dialogue and mentoring ethnic youth in self-advocacy.
It took six months from when we started engaging with youth to the State forum
being held. This was so that by the time the summit took place the youth would be
positioned to speak for themselves – that is engage with the Police Services
about their issues in a productive and meaningful way
·
Some consultation with a couple of migrant youth
with some past offending behaviours who preferred to be consulted
out-of-session. They did not choose to attend the summit but felt their views
will be safely communicated in the State youth-police relations dialogue. They
had a worth of information that we fed through the summit process.
·
The process culminated in a National
Youth-Police Summit in Melbourne. Each State was represented by Police Commissioner/
Deputy Police Commissioner and other Police staff, skilled migrant policy and
youth advocates from each State, 10 migrant youth recruited from each
youth-police State summit, professional reps from each State and national youth
Peak and also State migrant youth Peaks.
But Contexts Have Changed
The context is important. Peak bodies in
human services have largely disappeared or those that still exist hardly seem
to have resources or skill capacity to seriously impact on workings of
bureaucracy especially when it concerns vulnerable migrant youth that we saw on
the streets, out of control.
We have seen some great federal-funded
settlement supports for new migrants in areas such information-provision and
torture and trauma over the last two decades, but other worthy practices have
been marginalised. There is now less space for group work, community building
and prevention.
As significant, settlement programs targets
people during the early six-months of arrival and some services can be accessed
during the first two years of settlement. In addition, these days you can only
receive a particular settlement service if you fit a particular visa.
So what happens to youth-at-risk that are
bred right here in Australia? The modern day fragmentation in service delivery
means some groups really at-risk just easily fall through the crack. They fall off
federal bureaucratic priority cracks, who is there to outreach and engage them?
Federal politicians ought to be asking
themselves if it is fair that it should just be left to communities to fix
these issues without also requiring bureaucracy to account for how effectively
the major federal resources are used in demonstrating response to these
matters.
Also federal politicians on all sides of
the politics will be supporting the community if they were to pay attention to
the effectiveness of the own national Access and Equity policy and agency lead
role vested with DSS. In all seriousness, are all departments reporting
annually how are they achieving their deliverables in terms of Migrant Access
& Equity?
Remarks
·
When advocating for your community or group of
interest, remember that issues at hand are not just about resources. It is as
much about how supports are delivered. A good program structure takes account
of ‘where people are at’. The main point is that we still need to achieve the
same outcomes.
·
The Federal government has responsibilities and
a number of departments at the national level do have a role to play. Have a
look at the website links I provided. As tax-payers either as permanent
residents or citizens, it is fair to expect that those departments vested with
various relevant responsibilities would consider how best to foster greater
Access & Equity for migrant youth at-risk. Follow the trail of resources.
·
Surely State governments do have responsibility
in relation to Police Services, including Police-youth relations. But there are
a lot of other departments that can play a part well before any policing
incidences are noted.
·
The point about DSS being a lead federal agency for
the Multicultural
Access and Equity Policy is very important. Follow the trail and see how
this policy, current and future strategies can be better framed to support
needs that the community has identified.
·
Explore how and if community stakeholders can
work with DSS as a lead federal agency for the Multicultural
Access and Equity Policy to support and collaborate in effective
implementation by other federal Australian Government agencies.
Links:
Experiences of Migrant Settlement Services as
Competing Markets
Experiences of Using Public Space: A Sudanese Case Study in
Western Australia.
Government report examining definitions about
Australian ‘gangs’
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