Page 3702 - Week 10 - Thursday, 14 September 2017
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multicultural community, to utilise existing government facilities across the ACT for community events. Funding has been made available by the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate and, while it has taken somewhat longer than originally envisaged, the system is scheduled to be completed in late 2017.
Related to this, the Community Services Directorate has been working with the Education Directorate and Active Canberra to identify opportunities to improve access to ACT government schools outside school hours. Many sporting and community groups will benefit from structural and security upgrades to facilitate increased access.
For many people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, accessing government services can be difficult. At the same time, the same people may be most in need of support due to the impact of issues such as forced displacement, language barriers, poverty and discrimination. The ACT government is working hard to ensure that information and advice about essential services and programs is readily accessible for people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. This includes supporting the translation of information into a range of languages.
In 2016-17 the government funded the ACT Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services—MARSS—to translate a domestic violence referral brochure into five community languages. At the same time the ACT Health Directorate reprinted the plain English guide “Using Health Services in the ACT” and translated health service fact sheets on breast screening, cervical cancer screening, public health advice and the dangers of death cap mushrooms in the ACT into nine languages.
To further achieve the multicultural framework’s first objective—accessible and responsive services—Access Canberra is being actively promoted as the one-stop shop for members of culturally and linguistically diverse communities to access information on government services and opportunities. Through Access Canberra, the ACT government has promoted information on a range of programs supporting women, youth, people with disability and people experiencing mental illness. We are now looking at ways to make Access Canberra’s website more accessible in languages other than English.
Under the second objective—enhancing citizenship, participation and cohesion—the ACT government continues to work to build a connected community where everyone is respected, valued and included. Community sports engagement programs are a particularly popular engagement mechanism for newly arrived communities. In 2016-17 CSD supported Active Canberra to host the annual Global Cricket Challenge. A total of 154 children participated, with a support crowd of 400 people at the Reid oval. The majority of participants were from Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi backgrounds.
In June I was pleased to attend the National Caneball Championships and the Refugee World Cup soccer event, both hosted by Multicultural Youth Services ACT—MYS. At both events, MYS sought to increase opportunities for women to participate, highlighting the important role of the community in promoting engagement through sport. Additionally, through the annual multicultural grants program, community
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