NAYSS News - MARCH 2007
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IN THIS EDITION...
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> From the Lead Provider
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> NAYSS in Sydney (Mission Australia South West Youth Services)
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> NAYSS in South Australia (MRCSA)
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> Education and newly arrived young people: Interview with Milpera School in QLD
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> Education and newly arrived young people: Conflict in Schools
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> Stop Press…. NAYSS Teleconference
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| Mural created by young
people for Harmony Day,
CMYI - Northwest
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| From the Lead Provider
| Hi there everyone, and welcome to the first fully-fledged e-news for the NAYSS Initiative! From now on NAYSS News, as we’re calling it, will be out monthly.
You should also start to see a slightly different flavour to the content as we seek out contributions from “on the ground” staff that describe the complexity and challenges of this work. We want to know more now than information sharing and we hope to encourage a sense of support and genuine exchange between NAYSS staff that will help us all to grapple with the challenges, try out new ideas and document and share good practice.
Contributions in this month’s edition also highlight another feature of NAYSS News: action research. Although not using specific AR language (which is totally fine, by the way) the team at Sydney South West outline beautifully an action research process they have been through recently with regard to how they are responding to the needs of their clients. The MRC South Australia have also included a great example of action research that they recently completed during a camp. A huge thank you to this month’s contributors!
We have also included in this edition an interview with Milpera School in QLD, a specialist public high school working with refugee and newly arrived students, as well as a section where NAYSS staff share their thoughts on conflict in schools involving newly arrived students.
We hope you enjoy reading this and that perhaps it sparks an interest in you in responding to or adding to any of the issues raised. Or perhaps you have a burning issue that you could quickly note down and send to us: nayss@cmyi.net.au.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Leigh and Nadia
NAYSS Lead Provider Team
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| NAYSS in Sydney (Mission Australia South West Youth Services)
| Since our inception in August 2006, we have been doing case management and have been pretty busy, resettling our young persons into school and the community. As the numbers of young persons were increasing in our program, it became apparent that we do more for them than case management. Through discussions with them, we started a support group for young African girls.
We held our first meeting on the 21st February 2007. Thirteen of our young girls attended with great enthusiasm to start interacting with each other. They were all bubbly, and some giggled nervously whilst some needed food first. They conversed in similar and unfamiliar languages with each other.
The girls settled well with the group norms and expressed freely what their expectations were. The girls showed great insight when we were discussing the topics of interest. Many interests were aired, however the general consensus of their interests was very academically focused – the girls said that they wanted to progress in their English skills and thought that this group will support them to build their confidence in speaking in public.
With this in mind we decided to make English the language of communication within the group. The group agreed to meet fortnightly and to prepare for a topic to be discussed. Guest speakers will be invited and an open day will be planned for family and friends.
We’ll keep you posted on the development of the support group – watch this space!
Krishnee Nair
| nairk@missionaustralia.com.au
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NAYSS in South Australia (MRCSA)
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Activities
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- The MRCSA annual youth camp was held on 22nd to 24th January 2007 at Woodhouse Activity Centre, Picadilly. 57 participants attended including four youth leaders plus three staff, Jennie Hill (Anglicare) and two volunteers. Over the three days, 14 presenters provided information at 11 different sessions. 32 of the 57 camp participants were NAYSS clients.
An analysis of the camp evaluation forms completed by 51 of the participants attested that the camp was a huge success. 94% said they had learnt new skills and new information. They all enjoyed the camp and wanted to attend again next year. Only a few stated that there were too many information sessions and some said they would have preferred more outdoor activities. Several stated that they did not like the food.
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- 24 young people attended an information session entitled “An Identity Crisis” on the 16th January 07 at MRCSA premises to discuss isolation, identity issues, cross-cultural understanding, acceptable social behaviour and respect. The MRCSA Family Relationships Counsellor was the main presenter and was supported by two case workers.
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- A Young Women’s Action Group meeting was also held on the 16th January 07 to arrange a plan of action for issues specifically pertaining to young women from refugee backgrounds.
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- Intensive support has been provided to five young men in relation to:-
• Legal issues (not attending court and Legal Services Commission appointments on several occasions)
• Mental and physical health issues (e.g. one young man, previously arrested, attacked a family member with a knife and ended up in hospital with a broken arm, head and stomach injuries. A week later, upon leaving hospital, the same young man attacked another family member. Referrals to health professionals for assessment are being arranged.)
• Due to apparent mental health issues and lack of basic living skills, two young men are experiencing difficulties with accommodation and family relations. They do not keep appointments with health professionals making it difficult to assist their needs.
• Non attendance at school which has Centrelink income support ramifications.
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Trends
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The SA Police have raised concerns about aggressive and inappropriate behaviour by African young people in the Rundle mall and other public places. A meeting was convened by the African Communities Council on the 11th December and attended by MRCSA, DIAC, Community leaders, other Service Providers and the Police to discuss the problem and to work out solutions to prevent further incidents from occurring.
It was generally agreed that those present at the meeting should work in collaboration in an endeavour to resolve the problems. MRCSA checked its records to ascertain whether the young people involved were NAYSS clients however they were not. MRCSA has contacted SAPOL requesting them to refer any young people assessed as being at risk of offending to contact MRCSA so that they may receive case management support through the NAYSS program.
12 young people identified by the Sudanese Community were contacted by MRCSA to assess them for eligibility under the NAYSS program to provide case management support so that their needs may be met and to prevent them from re-offending.
The visitation by MRCSA case worker, Bosco Opi, to the homes of the 12 African young men who were arrested by SAPOL resulted in charges being dropped after discussions with parents, the young men and the Police. The young offenders were placed under the NAYSS program and have been receiving support and mentoring. 8 attended the youth camp at which two presentations were delivered by the Police and another on social behaviour and respect. They also attended the information session on the 16th January 07 entitled “An Identity Crisis”.
Reports of unacceptable behaviour in schools (Underdale High School and Adelaide Secondary School of English) is becoming common.
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Action Research
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Q. How can we increase participation by young Muslim women?
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| At the previous camp, we only had only African young women and no others.
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| | We wanted a better balance.
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| | We consulted with the Young Women’s Action Group and Middle-Eastern Communities to ascertain how we could better engage this target group.
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| | We invited two volunteer Muslim mothers to attend the camp with their daughters. Five Muslim girls also then attended and they together with the two volunteers enjoyed the camp immensely. They were satisfied that there was proper supervision, social interaction with other cultures and much to learn.
At this camp we ensured that evaluation forms were completed by all participants as this was not supervised at the previous camp and there was insufficient feedback. On this occasion, 90% completed the forms.
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Stan Lewinski
Migrant Resource Centre South Australia
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stan@mrcsa.com.au
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Education and newly arrived young people: Interview with Milpera School in QLD
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As the Lead Provider, we have heard lots of great reports about a specialist school in Queensland in terms of good practice within education. We decided to interview them to find out more…
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Tell us a bit about Milpera
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Milpera’s function is to receive, nurture and settle and manage transition to schools. Milpera is purpose-built. We have the following services for our students: dental, school youth nurse, youth supports coordinator, outreach workers from the immigration department, we have a lot of volunteers, so therefore our students get one-on-one support, music and art therapy for healing and helping students to work through any trauma that they may have experienced.
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What are the numbers of young people that attend Milpera, and what countries do they represent?
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We have 200 kids from over 38 countries, speaking 47 languages. Plus, many of our students speak three or more languages.
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What are the challenges that the school faces?
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Interrupted schooling.
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Do you have a student participation model? If so, can you outline how it works?
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Yes, we encourage youth participation. We have a student council, a Harmony award coming up, and we also invite our ex students to come back and give us a talk.
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Well that should give you an initial insight, if you want to find out more, please visit their website: www.milperashs.qld.edu.au
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Education and newly arrived young people: Conflict in Schools
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As noted by the MRC South Australia and raised directly with us by NAYSS staff in other states, conflict in schools is a significant issue in at least some NAYSS regions. In an effort to explore this issue, we have compiled the following reflections from NAYSS staff who have dealt with this issue before.
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What is conflict in schools about?
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- It can be about lots of things, but it is usually influenced by racism.
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- Racism can be from other students, by the school as an institution or individual teachers.
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- Conflict can be between different cultural groups or within a particular cultural group.
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- Some students can get scapegoated and then feel angry, with future responses to similar situations becoming more extreme.
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- We’ve seen issues that have spilled over from school to the local train station and that sort of thing.
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- If students feel victimised either by other students or the school/teachers, the risk of conflict is increased.
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What do newly arrived students experiencing or involved in conflict at school need?
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- They really need someone to listen to them.
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- They need someone who believes them and is willing to bear witness to their experience.
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- Someone who is on their side.
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- Listening, then advocating.
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What should schools be thinking about?
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- Definitely putting in place anti-racism policies and procedures.
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- Maybe looking also at training/support for teachers to be as informed as possible about the sort of experiences and needs of newly arrived students.
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- Definitely just promoting anti-racist practice across the whole school.
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- They may need to look at the role of welfare coordinator – we had a case where the welfare coordinator was also teaching and having to fulfil both a disciplinary and support role with the same student/s … it was just impossible.
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What advice would you give others dealing with this issue?
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- Unfortunately addressing these sorts of issues takes time – it’s worth hanging in there.
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- It is really a matter of trust building – between the school and other supports like the NAYSS worker, but also between the students and the NAYSS worker/teachers.
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- It is often a longer term process to address conflict in schools. Although it doesn’t feel like you are making any progress, things will change over time.
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Thanks to those NAYSS staff who offered their perspectives on this issue. If any of you have further ideas or information, please send them to us at nayss@cmyi.net.au … we will be sure to put it up on the website in our good practice section under ‘education’.
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Stop Press…. NAYSS Teleconference
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You may remember that last year we had a teleconference for all NAYSS staff around Australia, FACSIA staff and the Lead Provider as an opportunity to get together at one time to talk ‘NAYSS’. Well, the second of these for this funding period is coming up in April. Here are the details…
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Date: Wednesday 18th April
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Time: 2pm (EST)
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Topic: We would like to focus discussion on a more ‘meaty’ topic this time, so are proposing looking at WORKLOADS
The topic would explore differing experiences with group work, individual work, and intensive case work. It would also invite staff to consider the percentages of time they spend on these things, as well as on community development and action research activities. We will be chatting to each of you to discuss these ideas further in the coming weeks.
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