Emerging Issues Funding 2006-07

In the 2006-07 financial year funding was awarded to six Ad hoc Discretionary Grants. Summaries of the projects are provided below:

Organisation: Griffith City Council
Project Name: Breaking New Ground
Locality: Griffith
State: NSW
Amount: $53 500
Project Summary:
Breaking New Ground aims to promote understanding between youth of different cultural backgrounds in response to cases of bullying and harassment in Griffith NSW.

Project activities will include barbeques in high schools and in community settings to get communities together.  Police will deliver workshops to students in the schools on cultural diversity, tolerance and the legal limits on behaviour.  Young people will work together on two major activities aimed at engaging them and the broader community in increasing understanding of diversity.  Activities will be developed after consultation with young people and may include visual arts or sporting activities.

Organisation: The Benevolent Society
Project Name: Skillswize
Locality: Paddington
State: NSW
Amount: $89 116
Project Summary:
Skillswize is a project promoting community harmony in western Sydney, where there is a highly diverse p opulation, and issues of intolerance, ignorance, and ethnic tension can often occur. The project will recruit up to 30 young people aged between 14 and 17 years from schools in Blacktown, Campbelltown, Fairfield and Liverpool. Participants will be sought from a range of backgrounds, including Anglo-Celtic, Indigenous, Eastern European, Pacific Islander and Asian. Participants will:

  • undertake a leadership program
  • visit different community settings
  • meet with community leaders to explore Australian values and cultural diversity
  • create a peer education program, and resource
  • deliver a peer education session in 25 schools after graduating from the program.

Participants will be given training in writing, research, facilitation, peer education and will have a mentor drawn from the corporate, government or not-for-profit sectors.

Organisation: Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre
Project Name: Discovery Challenge
Locality: Blacktown
State: NSW
Amount:
Project Summary:
Discovery Challenge aims to promote understanding between youth of different cultural backgrounds in order to reduce social isolation. The project will be open to students from schools in Blacktown and Mt Druitt. Participants will be drawn from the African, Pacific Islander, Afghani, Indigenous and wider Australian community. The project will help build relationships between the young people, and promote a sense of community through a series of documentary film workshops.

Students will work alongside industry professionals to create short documentaries focusing on their experiences and their sense of belonging and identity. There will be several public showings of Discovery Challenge - The Documentary. This edited documentary will highlight the participants’ leadership in creating community harmony through artistic expression, and in sustaining community harmony by sharing their work with their parents and peers.

Organisation: City of Port Adelaide Enfield
Project Name: Footprints
Locality: Port Adelaide
State: SA
Amount: $38 900
Project Summary:
Footprints is a project promoting mutual respect and participation in the community. The project will respond to the significant issues affecting refugees and humanitarian entrants settling in the Port Adelaide Enfield area. The project seeks to do this through working with local schools to explore where people come from and hold small drama workshops exploring diversity. Students will explore issues of identity and develop short plays and artworks based on what they have learned. The plays will initially be performed within the schools with the audiences to include students, family and community members.

The project will culminate in a performance and exhibition in a public park. This will be promoted through local media and flyers distributed in the local area. Performances will be filmed and the resulting DVD will be distributed to schools in the area to be used as a future learning tool.

Organisation: National Rugby League
Project Name: NRL Multicultural Program
Locality: Moore Park
State: NSW
Amount: $85 950
Project Summary:
This project responds to broad issues around developing respect between youth of different groups in western Sydney. The project aims to engage youth of diverse backgrounds in a mainstream activity, playing rugby league, by delivering workshops in schools and providing information to parents. It will also try to get parents and children involved in local clubs.

Information booklets for parents, posters featuring high profile NRL players and a student workbook will be produced and distributed to 60 schools throughout Penrith, Parramatta, Campbelltown and Bankstown as part of a cultural awareness and development program. These materials will promote tolerance and mutual respect.  The NRL will deliver clinics in the schools focussing on sporting skills and the values of fair participation and mutual respect. High profile players will be involved in some of these activities. Other activities include courses for referees and coaches, parent involvement in attending local games and kids ‘bring a mate’ days at local clubs.

To view participant's testimonial
See: Participant's testimonial (12KB PDF file)

Organisation: Australian Council of Christians and Jews
Project Name: World Conference of the International Council of Christians and Jews
Locality: Kew
State: VIC
Amount: $40 000
Project Summary:
The World Conference of the International Council of Christians and Jews will be held in Sydney from 8 to 11 July 2007. The 4-day program will bring together Christian, Jewish and Muslim presenters and panel members to discuss how the three religions can 'Heal a Broken World'.

The conference will be held in the University of New South Wales.  Visits to selected Jewish and Christian institutions will be organised for overseas and interstate delegates, while all participants will join in cultural and social functions.

Organisation: Newcastle University Students’ Association
Project Name: Refugee-Student Support Program
Locality: Newcastle
State: NSW
Amount: $28 950
Project Summary:
Refugee-Student Support Program is a project that aims to address issues of intolerance and barriers to integration experienced by African refugee school students new to Newcastle.  The project will develop a mentoring program between university student volunteers and students of Callaghan College, a multi‑campus secondary school.

Project activities will include:

  • tutoring in computer literacy and civics,
  • mentoring of students; community partnerships and social events, allowing the students to feel integrated into the local community, and
  • a peer support/buddy system between refugee students and the university student volunteers. 

There will also be an essay writing competition for school students on the theme of diversity.

Organisation: Deception Bay Community Youth Programs Assoc Inc
Project Name: The D Bay Way
Locality: Caboolture
State: QLD
Amount: $66 021
Project Summary:
This project responds to social issues arising from Pacific Islander youth alienation and escalating community tension in the Caboolture Shire, in particular Deception Bay.

Pacific Islander and mainstream youth will participate in a Youth Reference Group (YRG) to discuss their concerns and aspirations with key community stakeholders.  A strategy will be developed and implemented to foster a sense of belonging for all participants.

Sport and music activities at the Deception Bay High School and elsewhere will be used as a way of increasing self-confidence, understanding and respect between young people of different backgrounds.  Leadership and cross-cultural awareness workshops will also be held at the school, involving students and staff.

The project also seeks to work with local leaders and community organisations to support community events involving a broad cross-section of the local community.

Organisation: Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre Inc
Project Name: North Region Youth Community Support Project
Locality: Perth
State: WA
Amount: $60 000
Project Summary:
The northern region of the Perth metropolitan area has experienced tensions between young people of different cultural backgrounds, predominately Indigenous, African and Anglo-Celtics.  The North Region Youth Community Support Project aims to address these tensions by promoting understanding and developing the leadership skills of young people in the area.

Aged between 14 to 16, these young people will be recruited from three local high schools and will bond together through seminars, events, arts and sports activities focussing on community harmony themes.
 
The project aims to improve community relations by:

  • building the capacity of community leaders and community members to have a better understanding of other cultures
  • providing a forum where young people, their parents and elders can discuss and design strategies to address issues of aggression and violence
  • providing opportunities for young people to have better understanding of and respect for other cultures
  • providing opportunities for young people to interact with people of various backgrounds and educate their peers in a supportive setting.