As part of AMES Australia's CALD Knowledge Exchange Program in partnership with Victoria's Department of Education and Training, a series of webinars for people working with CALD communities were held recently.
The webinars are designed for frontline workers, educators and community organisations working with diverse communities.
The most recent was titled 'Volunteering in a pandemic; challenges and opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities'.
It was held via Zoom on July 1 and delivered by presenters Sara Sterling, Sector Development Manager at Volunteering Victoria, and Reshma Manandhar, Community Engagement Officer at AMES Australia.
Facilitated by AMES Australia Research Officer Carissa Gilham, the session included information on: volunteering trends within CALD communities based on recent AMES research; why volunteering can be a valuable activity for people from a CALD background; how volunteering may be changing during COVID-19, and how we can support CALD communities in emerging forms of volunteering, and; what local can do to help people find out about volunteering opportunities and set up and formalise their own volunteer programs.
Another session was titled 'NDIS: Roll out or miss out? How to support and engage people with disabilities from CALD backgrounds' and presenters included Tessa Hughes, Manager of the Information, Linkages and Capacity-building Project at AMES and Janet Curtain, a self-advocate and support worker for Power in Culture and Ethnicity (PCE).
Facilitated by John van Kooy, the webinar included information about: CALD communities' access to the NDIS and disability supports; rights and advocacy services available; relevant resources on the NDIS for CALD clients, and; an update on the NDIS during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There have also been two webinars run in partnership with law firm Maurice Blackburn - on super and insurance and employment rights related to the COVID-19 pandemic.