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 December 2007
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NEWS AND VIEWS
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Season’s Greetings!
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Best wishes for a safe, happy and peaceful New Year from all at CMYI. We thank you for your support and look forward to working with you in 2008!
CMYI offices will close from Monday 24 December, and will re-open on Wednesday 2 January 2008.
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New Federal ministers for youth and multiculturalism
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Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you'll already be aware of the result of last month's Federal Election, with the first change in government at national level for 11 years. New ministers have been announced, and readers of CMYI e-News will be interested to see the return of the Youth portfolio. South Australian MP Kate Ellis was named the new Minister for Youth – a fitting choice since, at 30 years of age, she’s the youngest Government Minister. Senator Chris Evans, of Western Australia, is the new Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.
For a full list of ministers, go to the media release on the Australian Government website.
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Sudanese community and Human Rights Commission call for compassion and respect
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The Sudanese Community Association of Australia (SCAA) has urged the new Federal Government to show compassion and respect for Africans resettling in Australia.
SCAA spokesperson Bol Diu Gok urged the new leadership to reconsider the African humanitarian refugee intake.
“At the moment hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees are stuck in the refugee camps without hope. There is still a great need to process humanitarian visa applications from these areas.”
Mr Gok said the community was still in shock about statements made by the previous Immigration Minister.
“Statements made about our community demonizing us as criminals and not respecting the law are unfair and untrue; the whole community can’t be stereotyped because of the bad behavior of individuals. We face many challenges as new migrants, but our community has been stigmatized for not adjusting to the system. We feel that this is unfair - our community is adjusting and integrating like any other migrant community.”
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission supported the statement. Commission Chief Executive Officer Dr Helen Szoke said the Sudanese community had been unfairly singled out.
“Recent media coverage and public commentary has seen members of our African community singled out and portrayed as a problem,” said Dr Szoke.
“African Australians have embraced Australia as their new home and bring much to Victoria’s diverse multicultural community. As Australians, they have the right to a fair go.”
Dr Szoke also called on the Federal Government to renew its commitment to multiculturalism in Australia.
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WHAT'S NEW AT CMYI?
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Report on CMYI’s End of Year Event
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CMYI held another successful and entertaining end of year event on Thursday 6 December at the Treacy Conference Centre in Parkville.
The event was an opportunity for CMYI to share its year’s achievements and to officially launch its Annual Report of Activities, as well as the new publication 'Voices of Young Australia', which you can read more about below. The publications were launched by the former Victorian Premier, Joan Kirner.
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 The crowd was entertained by author Alice Pung, who talked about her upbringing in the western suburbs of Melbourne as the eldest daughter of parents who escaped Cambodia in the late 1970s. The morning finished with an energetic performance from a young team of krumpers. (Please note: for our older readers, krumping is a new youth dance craze!)
The event was a fantastic way to celebrate another great year of achievements at CMYI and to thank those that have contributed to making the year such a great success.
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New Publication: Voices of Young Australia
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 I strongly believe that society needs to listen carefully to the voices of young people. This should extend to supporting young people to be involved in the development of policy and in decision-making, and I think we need to encourage as many young people as possible to get involved. - Nosrat
CMYI’s work is informed by listening to the voices of young people. This new publication features the stories of six strong, inspiring young people. Their experiences offer an insight to the work CMYI performs in the areas of sport and recreation; refugee youth resettlement; education, training and employment; police and justice; family and communtiy; and youth participation.
Download a copy from the link below, or contact CMYI if you’d like a hard copy.
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 download a copy (2.63MB)
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CMYI holds forum on racism and discrimination in schools
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CMYI’s third Statewide Multicultural Youth Issues Network (SMYIN) Meeting of 2007 was held on 25th October at CO.AS.IT in Carlton and explored themes and strategies for addressing racism and discrimination in Victorian schools. Over 120 participants representing a wide range of community, education and government organisations attended the forum, entitled ‘I’m not racist, but…: Are we effectively tackling racism and discrimination in schools?’
Keynote speakers included Kim Webster, Senior Program Advisor at VicHealth and author of More than tolerance: Embracing diversity for health, and Associate Professor Fethi Mansouri, Director of the Research Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. Kim spoke about key findings from VicHealth’s research into the links between discrimination and negative health outcomes, including the impact of discrimination on young people’s psycho-social development. A/Prof Mansouri spoke about his research regarding students of Arabic speaking backgrounds and their experiences of racism and discrimination in two Melbourne secondary schools. He also highlighted new resources and strategies to promote multicultural education that is inclusive and responsive to students’ diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Keynote addresses were followed by a panel discussion involving speakers offering different perspectives on strategies and gaps in tackling racism and discrimination within the school context. Panel speakers included: Kavitha Chandra-Shekeran (Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission), Lynn Pickles (Multicultural Education, Department of Education & Early Childhood Development), Lesley Hyde (Schools as Core Social Centres, Catholic Education Office), Dayane Stanovic (Western Young People’s Independent Network), and Mohammed El-leissy (Project R.A.C.E, CMYI).
For more information on discussions and presentations (including links) from this SMYIN forum, download the Forum Report.
CMYI will use the information gathered from this forum, as well as from follow-up consultations and a review of current literature, to develop a discussion paper and series of recommendations. This policy discussion paper will be available from the CMYI website in 2008.
If you have suggestions or examples of good practice strategies you would like to contribute to this paper, please contact Claire Bramwell, CMYI Sector Development Officer on cbramwell@cmyi.net.au or on (03) 9340 3720.
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download SMYIN Forum Report (180kb)
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download Kim Webster's Presentation (96kb)
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download Fethi Mansouri's Presentation (400kb)
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CMYI and Scanlon Foundation combine for Voices of Young Australians project
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CMYI has received funding from the Scanlon Foundation to deliver a project working with diverse young people to promote social cohesion across local government areas of Victoria.
The Voices of Young Australians: Uniting for Social Cohesion project, coordinated by CMYI, aims to foster and facilitate grassroots change and initiatives through youth leadership and youth led activities that promote understanding and respect between all Australians.
In each year of the project a youth leadership course will be delivered to 15-20 students of diverse backgrounds from years 9 -11. The course will include modules on leadership, communication, project management, conflict resolution and media. Topics such as discrimination, racism and cultural diversity will underscore the training. Youth-led initiatives that foster team building and conflict resolution skills will aim to benefit schools and the broader community.
CMYI is currently delivering the first phase of the project in the City of Hume and City of Whittlesea. Working across five diverse schools, the project aims to enhance inter school cooperation between students from Hume and Whittlesea regions. Approximately six students have been recruited from each school who will participate in intensive anti-discrimination leadership training delivered from 10 - 14 December 2007 and youth-led project work from January to May 2008.
Participants of the project will also be invited to coordinate and participate in a State forum held in Melbourne in February 2008 with other youth people from around Victoria. The forum will provide an opportunity for the young people to highlight their work, share ideas and develop a voice on key discrimination issues.
For more information please contact Caitlin Wilks (Voices of Young Australians Project Officer) at CMYI on (03) 9340 3700 or cwilks@cmyi.net.au.
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New Information Sheet – Does age really matter?
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This information sheet provides some context for workers who are supporting a young person whose documented or ‘official’ date of birth is different from their actual date of birth. Date of birth discrepancies are a common occurrence for young people who arrive in Australia, particularly those from refugee backgrounds.
This resource includes background information about why young people arrive in Australia with different dates of birth on their official documentation, what the implications of this are in terms of settlement and services, and some tips for supporting a young person through the process of changing their documented date of birth.
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download a copy (357kb)
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Inclusive Local Government - A guide to good practice strategies for engaging young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds in local government services
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The Inclusive Local Government Guide has been developed to support the work of local councils in ensuring young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds are engaged, empowered and participate in local government programs and services (e.g. youth services, leisure services, infrastructure and planning departments).
The Guide has been specifically designed for managers and workers providing services to young people who would like to:
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- Increase the access and participation of young people from refugee or migrant backgrounds and their communities in programs, activities and services;
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- Target their services to be inclusive of young people from refugee or migrant backgrounds;
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- Ensure access and equity and that service users reflect the diversity of young people living in local areas; and
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- Provide services that are culturally responsive.
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download PDF (878kb)
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WHAT'S NEW IN THE SECTOR
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Details of upcoming events, conferences and new resources in the CLD youth sector. If you have an event or resource you want promoted through this newsletter, please send details to info@cmyi.net.au
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New Resources
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- Good Starts Study for Refugee Youth - the Refugee Health Research Centre at La Trobe University and the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture are currently working on the Good Starts Study for Refugee Youth, a longitudinal study that combines the methods of ethnography and social epidemiology to examine the contexts and processes that promote health and well-being amongst newly arrived young refugees. The fourth and fifth Broadsheets from the study - focusing on the experience of discrimination among refugee youth in Melbourne; and refugee youth and the school environment - is now available from the project's home page on the La Trobe University website.
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Awards and Funding
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- Quit Multicultural Community Support Grants - Quit Victoria's Multicultural Program works with community groups, ethnic organisations, welfare, health and educational organisations and the ethnic media, to reduce illness and suffering caused by smoking and by exposure to cigarette smoke. Quit is offering small grants to support groups or organisations from culturally diverse communities to organise a project that raises awareness of the health effects of smoking within their community. Grants up to $500 are available for new projects, or to complement projects that are already taking place. Visit the Quit Victoria website for more details.
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IN THE MEDIA
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Multicultural youth issues in the media – what are some of the issues that are making it into the news? If you come across media articles you think should be highlighted in this newsletter, please forward to info@cmyi.net.au
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Racist leaflet fuels tensions (The Age newspaper, 2 December 2007)
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"Racial tensions in Melbourne's inner suburbs are likely to be fuelled by a racist leaflet dropped in letterboxes that attacks African gangs and says Australian women are not safe." Features comment from Director of CMYI, Carmel Guerra.
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> read article at The Age website
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Setting the record straight (My Career - The Age, 1 December 2007)
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Profile of CMYI's Multicultural Youth Liaison Officer, Claudia Abakah, who also talks about CMYI's Multicultural Youth Pledge campaign.
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> read PDF scan (292kb) of The Age article
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