Accessible Government Services for All Annual Report
Page 15
State, territory and local governments
Western Australia - Office of Multicultural Interests
The Integrated Services Centres (ISC) Pilot Project enacts a key recommendation made by the Western Australian Across-Government Working Party on Settlement Issues for African Humanitarian Entrants established in 2005 to investigate concerns regarding the capacity of current settlement services to address the settlement needs of African humanitarian entrants. The Working Party oversaw consultations with state government service providers, key non-government organisations involved in humanitarian settlement and African community representatives to identify issues and priorities.
The ISC Pilot Project is a partnership between the Office of Multicultural Interests (OMI) and the Western Australian Department of Education and Training and Department of Health (DoH), and also involves the Western Australian Department for Community Development and the Western Australian office of DIAC. The Pilot Project incorporates the notion of 'Schools as Hubs' articulated in the Australian Government paper Measures to Improve Settlement Outcomes for Humanitarian Entrants: Overview Paper for State and Territory Governments.
The Pilot Project is being conducted at two Intensive English Centre (IEC) primary school sites. The primary areas of focus are physical health, mental health, education and training, and family and community. The target group are adults, young people and children - students of the IECs and their families - who are humanitarian entrants to Western Australia and who are beyond the six-month eligibility period for access to services provided as part of the IHSS.
The Ethnic Youth in Sport Youth Programme aims to address the barriers currently faced by ethnic young people when accessing sporting clubs and engaging in mainstream sporting activities. The programme aims to identify and implement strategies to increase participation, and to encourage interaction between ethnic and non-ethnic young people in sports associations and clubs.
The programme is guided by a working party comprising representatives from OMI, the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR), the WA Sports Federation and the Australian Asian Association. The Working Party has identified key stakeholders and undertaken research and consultations resulting in feedback on barriers to participation for culturally diverse youth and suggested strategies for implementation. Strategies initiated in 2006 were:
- City of Stirling Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Youth Sport, Recreation and Leisure Project is a three-year partnership between OMI, DSR and the City of Stirling to increase culturally and linguistically diverse participation in sport, recreation and leisure. It focuses on suburbs where there is a relatively high concentration of young people from these backgrounds who have low participation rates in organised sport and recreation.
- Two information sessions were conducted by OMI and DSR to inform ethnic community leaders about DSR's Sport and Recreation Community Grants Scheme which, in 2006, focused on attracting applications from ethnic communities. DSR has since employed a full-time officer for six months to promote the next round of its Community Grants Scheme to culturally diverse community groups.
- DSR, City of Stirling and OMI arranged for 60 free delegate places to be allocated to ethnic community group representatives to encourage their attendance at DSR's annual sporting industry conference, Active 2006. In 2006, the conference focused on how sport organisations and local governments could assist culturally diverse groups to increase their participation in sport and recreation activities, and how sport can help break down racial barriers.
- OMI has had a number of discussions with the Fremantle Dockers AFL team about complementing each other's activities. OMI has assisted with the coordination of an information session for IEC staff on the Dockers' Welcome to the AFL Programme, which aims to increase culturally diverse participation in Aussie Rules football. All attendees signed up for the programme to be implemented at their schools.
The objective of the Inclusion and Integration Grants Programme (IIGP) was to provide one-off funding to community based and non-government organisations to undertake projects designed to build community capacity, and promote integration and active participation by all members of Western Australia's diverse community. The 2006 IIGP First Round comprised three funding categories:
- Community Based Initiatives: to support existing and new community based initiatives that promote integration and active participation by members of the community in social, economic or political aspects of life, thereby combating marginalisation and exclusion.
- Promoting Interaction and Communication: to promote interaction and communication between and among different religious and ethnic groups from new and emerging communities and the broader community and facilitate ongoing dialogue between groups.
- Youth Leadership: to promote and enhance active participation by youth, particularly those at risk of marginalisation and exclusion, and provide opportunities for youth from new and emerging communities to interact with the broader community.