Multicultural Youth Affairs Network NSW (MYAN) NSW MINUTES 10am 12pm Tuesday 24 January 2011 Auburn Town Hall, Sommerville Room 1 Susan Street Auburn Chairperson: Anne Marie Taylor, MYAN NSW State Coordinator 1. Welcome and introductions Anne Marie Taylor, MYAN NSW State Coordinator welcomed everyone to the meeting and wished them a Happy New Year! 2. Attendance and Apologies Meeting Attendees: Anne Marie Taylor, MYAN NSW Brent Logan, MTC Work Solutions Craig Taunton, St Anthony s Family Care Diem Pham, Settlement Services International Fiona Lo, Transcultural Mental Health Centre Helen Rolfe, Anglicare Kawther Yousef, Auburn Youth Centre Kimberley Pangilinan, SW Connect Michelle Westgate, Marist Youth Care Remsen Sada, Settlement Services International Rosa Stathis, Community Relations Commission for a multicultural NSW Sarah Taylor, Anglicare Shiva Gounden, MTC Work Solutions Apologies: Alarna Crabb, Barnados Clare Darling, WAHS Mary Ann Murphy, Auburn Youth Centre 3. Minutes from last meeting Anne Marie Taylor and Craig Taunton accepted minutes from last meeting. 4. Business Arising Outstanding actions from previous meetings Action 19/07/2011: Form a working group with mental health service providers to review the MYAN NSW mental health position paper. It was suggested that Anne Marie Taylor and the new Youth worker at The Transcultural Mental Health Centre, Fiona Lo review this paper and action 1
5. State Coordinator update November 2011 Sector Development Forum The MYAN NSW Sector Development Forum in November 2011 on Intergenerational Family Conflict was successful with 50 attendees. The next forum scheduled is for March 2012 at The Hills Holroyd Parramatta MRC, a topic will be decided on by MYAN NSW in this meeting. Settlement Services International HSS Youth Support and Coordination Project The MYAN NSW State Coordinator is now working with SSI on the HSS Youth Support and Coordination Project. The Project is an initiative of the MYAN NSW and partnership between Settlement Services International and the Youth Action and Policy Association NSW (YAPA). With the new youth focus as part of the HSS, which now includes a Youth Sub Plan as part of case management, the MYAN NSW State Coordinator is building the capacity of case managers to work with young people. One of the key deliverables of the project will be a good practice guide to case management with young people from refugee backgrounds, which will be launched in youth week 2012. Regional representation for the MYAN NSW The MYAN NSW is seeking further representation from regional service providers. The State Coordinator recently received an update about programs in the Bathurst Orange area through a generalist SGP worker. A life skills project had been run with Sudanese boys at the St Stanislaus College, while some of them had been in Australia longer than five years it was identified that there was a need to introduce them to services and increase their awareness of services. The State Coordinator is hoping to receive regular updates from regional settlement and youth workers to be able to contribute to MYAN NSW meetings. Action 1: The State Coordinator will circulate the report by Lisa Muffett about the life skills project from Bathurst. Settlement Grants Program (SGP) Application The State Coordinator is currently writing an SGP Application to run a Multicultural Youth Representation Program in Western Sydney and regional NSW. The program would be modelled on YAPAs successful youth projects: YOUth Represent and the Youth Participation Grants Project but only run with young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. 6. MYAN NSW Work on Priority Areas The MYAN NSW priority areas in 2011 12 are Employment and Training, Intergenerational Family Conflict and Education. Refugee youth homelessness has also been identified as a focus area. Intergenerational Family Conflict Discussion Paper 2
The MYAN NSW State Coordinator is drafting a discussion paper on Intergenerational Family Conflict and is seeking input from MYAN NSW members. Some members have sent in research and information from consultations with young people and families. Please email anything that you may have from your service to the State Coordinator to add to the paper. Previous Actions on Mental Health As noted in Business Arising the State Coordinator and Fiona Lo will revise actions on mental health. Actions on priority areas: Education and Employment and Training No actions on Education, Employment and Training were developed as part of the meeting. Next Sector Development Forum topic Scheduled for Tuesday 20 th March It was confirmed that the next Sector Development Forum will be held on Tuesday 20 th March 2012 at The Hills Holroyd Parramatta MRC and will be about refugee youth homelessness and also include a session and finding youth services and directories online. Michelle Westgate from Marist Youth Care and the Youth Accommodation Interagency Nepean (YAIN) offered to present on how to find youth services online. Those present were asked to send through any other suggestions for speakers to the State Coordinator. Action 2: MYAN NSW State Coordinator to send request to egroup for MYAN NSW members to send speaker suggestions for the next Sector Development Forum on homelessness. Youth Homelessness People from are increasingly reporting refugee youth homelessness to the State Coordinator as an issue across the youth and settlement sectors. Michelle Westgate from Marist Youth Care and the Youth Accommodation Interagency Nepean (YAIN) recently contacted the State Coordinator to discuss the increasing incidence of young people from refugee backgrounds turning up at crisis accommodation and housing services. The State Coordinator is encouraging the YAIN and any other services encountering young people from refugee backgrounds who are homeless to begin recording the numbers and cases for future reference. 7. Youth Service and Interagency Reports The State Coordinator explained that this is a new agenda item and that the purpose of adding this section to MYAN NSW meetings is to try and increase the representation of a range of agencies to provide a report on current activities related to multicultural young people. The State Coordinator requested that members make suggestions for additional agencies and interagencies to be represented as part of the MYAN NSW meetings. Action 3: MYAN NSW members are requested to make suggestions for increased representation and participation in the MYAN NSW meetings. 3
7.1 Refugee Youth Interagency Next meeting 10 th February 2012. The meeting will seek to address the issues raised in the RYI Planning Day held in 2011. Anyone interested in refugee youth issues is welcome to attend. 7.2 SGP funded programs St Anthony s Family Care St Anthony s has two part time SGP workers, working across western Sydney. Craig reported that they are currently finding it challenging to link specific groups of newly arrived young people with other services because family members are often in opposition to their young people attending services and events outside their own community and this is creating conflict between young and their families. 7.3 HSS Youth Support and Coordination Program This item was covered in the State Coordinator s update. 7.4 Refugee Support Program, DEC The Department of Education and Communities were not present at the meeting. However, the State Coordinator discussed the Welcome Kit, which now all newly arrived students receive when they start at an IEC or mainstream school. 7.5 Regional NSW This item was covered in the State Coordinator s update. The MYAN NSW is seeking further representation from regional service providers and the State Coordinator is exploring avenues for their increased participation. 7.6 MYAN Australia Refugee Youth Support Pilot CMY (the auspice of the MYAN Australia) has been asked by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) to scope and establish a national pilot project that will test a new approach to the settlement of 16 and 17 year old unaccompanied humanitarian minors (UHMs). This approach will recognise the ability of many of these clients to transition to living independently and aim to strengthen their ability to manage their lives effectively in the Australian community. The pilot is likely to include providing youth focused settlement services and housing in more creative ways designed to deliver these outcomes. The pilot will be conducted in three states by CMY (Victoria), Multicultural Youth South Australia and Multicultural Development Association (Queensland). All of these organisations have been involved in the Multicultural Youth Advisory Network (MYAN) since 2005 and have significant experience with this group of young people. The MYAN Australia will also play a role in the pilot to support the development and implementation of a national framework. The 12 month pilot will begin in February 2012. 4
8. MYAN NSW Youth Reps The MYAN NSW is developing a Youth Representation Program and is looking for multicultural youth representatives (reps) aged 12 25. No guidelines have been developed for the program but the State Coordinator is seeking nominations for representatives. Action 4: The State Coordinator develops an application form and guidelines for young people s participation in the Multicultural Youth Rep Program and circulates it to the network. 9. Good practice for youth settlement in NSW Good practice in youth settlement is something that is being discussed at the national and state levels at the moment and is related to the Settlement Council of Australia s development of settlement standards. The State Coordinator suggested that it might be useful for MYAN NSW to have some input into any further national processes. 10. Young people in community detention Currently, no one from organisations that are providing services and accommodation to Unaccompanied Humanitarian Migrants (UHMs) participates in the MYAN NSW and there is gap in knowledge and information about the services and support that this group is receiving. Action 5: The State Coordinator invite representatives from UnitingCare Burnside and Marist Youth Care working with UHMs to participate in the MYAN NSW. 11. Information Share and General Business Organisation/Project Anglicare Reconnect Parramatta Contact Person Sarah Taylor Phone 02 9895 8140 Email staylor@anglicare.org.au Information to Share 1. Reconnect Parramatta (Covering Parramatta, Auburn and Bankstown LGAs) currently do not have a waiting list. We are happy to take any new referrals for young people aged 12 18 or 12 21 (newly arrived to Australia). 2. We also will be running our RAGE program starting in a few months. This program is designed for young people who are experiencing difficulties in effectively communicating their anger. Our RAGE program will be starting up again in a couple of months (date will be confirmed soon). We are reviewing our referral process for this program, clients of the RAGE program will not necessarily need to be Reconnect clients if they are wishing just to attend the RAGE program. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any additional information. 5
Organisation/Project St Anthonys Family Care (SAFC) Contact Person Craig Taunton Phone (02) 9747 5782 Email Craig.taunton@safc.org.au Information to Share SAFC are currently running SGP Programs, providing settlement services across Western Sydney for anyone living in Australia for more than 12 months. SAFC currently run weekly Supported Playgroups called Jumping Joeys at various suburbs in Western Sydney including Blacktown, St Marys, Granville, Auburn and Cabramatta. SAFC also have a youth arts project that is working with newly arrived refugee young people in IEC s. This program uses digital media and visual art projects to develop English skills and the social confidence of young people. SAFC are also looking into running a talent quest, for young refugees, leading up to Refugee Week 2012. The next MYAN NSW meeting will be the Sector Development Forum on 20 March 2012 @The Hills Holroyd Parramatta MRC Inc. Level 4,1 Horwood Place, Parramatta. 6