Multicultural Programs

Thank you for your generosity.
Your donation provides emergency relief for asylum seekers in Queensland, helping them with basic living essentials such as medication, food and housing.
Donate here through our Give Now fund, or by direct deposit – details below.
All donations are tax-deductible.

What we’re asking

We need suitable houses to provide homes for families who have been cut off from any financial assistance and nearly all kinds of funded support services.

These families are facing destitution. We are asking individuals, businesses, and faith groups from across South-East Queensland to commit to housing a family for at least 12 months.

This is the most significant emerging need for people seeking asylum living in our community.

How it would work

You could make a commitment as a family, a group of friends, work colleagues, a business or as a faith congregation.

You can team up with other congregations, families or businesses to get others involved.

To discuss this further, please contact the ASRA coordinator, Anne Hilton.

Email Anne

 

How Can I Help?

Pay The Rent

You can commit to covering the rent for a family for up to a year. This will allow a family to remain in their present accommodation providing stability and the ability to maintain their support and schooling networks. The cost could be between $250 and $350 per week. Eg. Currently a parish is paying rent for a family of 3.

House Available

Does your church or congregation have a house that is not being used or could be repurposed?
Does someone in your congregation have an extra property they are willing to make available? Eg. A parish refurbished their convent and is accommodating 9 adult women, 3 teenage girls and 2 children.

Buy a House

A feasible model that many faith groups have already undertaken. It can be very affordable as properties can be purchased and a mortgage paid off for not much difference to renting. The benefit is that you can pay off an asset, which can be used over the longer term, for other forms of community housing or other uses for your congretation.

Take Out a Lease

Take out a lease on a property and sub-let to a family in need of a home.

Make a Donation

If you are not in a position to do any of the above cash donations are most welcome as the families need ongoing support.

Websites

• Brisbane Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support Network (BRASS)
• Multicultural Australia
• RAILS: Refugee and Immigration Legal Service
  A community legal service that provides advice and assistance to disadvantaged people. Services are free of charge.
• Refugee Council of Australia
• Romero Centre
• QPASTT (Qld Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma)
• World Wellness Group
• Australian Red Cross
• Mater Refugee Health
• Transcultural Mental Health
• Muslim Charitable Foundation
• Indooroopilly Uniting Church Asylum Seeker and Refugee Support Group

Downloads

• Australian Red Cross: Emergency Relief Resource
  A referral guide for practitioners supporting people seeking asylum, in particular those subject to return.
• The Refugee Council of Australia
  A small, not-for-profit organisation and relies on public financial support
  to continue its vital work in research, education and advocacy.
• SHEV and TPV Protection Visas – a Factsheet
  Factsheet from Refugee and Immigration Legal Service (RAILS).
  Arabic, Tamil, Farsi and Dari translations available on RAILS website.

In May 2016 Communify Qld produced community education videos in 5 languages: Russian, Amharic, Mandarin, Farsi and Bengali, funded through the Queensland Government’s Not Now Not Ever campaign.

Each video (excluding Russian) is produced with English subtitles. Five bilingual presenters in the videos provide information about what is considered to be domestic violence and outline services operating in Logan City, Brisbane and Ipswich.

The videos are being promoted throughout CALD communities and community service, family support, domestic violence service and multicultural service sectors.

Communify Qld hopes the community education videos will bring greater awareness about support and services available to families from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds who are experiencing domestic violence.

Communify hopes that the stigma surrounding domestic violence in many communities can be overcome and people who are suffering in silence can be encouraged to speak up and seek support and services in line with the Queensland Government’s 2016 Not Now Not Ever campaign.