Page 3703 - Week 10 - Thursday, 14 September 2017
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groups can apply for grants to support sporting events aimed at fostering community engagement and participation.
As proposed in the framework, ACT government directorates have been developing detailed plans to address the unique needs of people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. While this work is ongoing, an important example is the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate’s work to review community infrastructure in the context of urban renewal. A core component of this work is to ensure that community facilities are accessible and appropriate to the needs of people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
The government appreciates the opportunity to work collaboratively with multicultural community leaders, supporting and encouraging them to disseminate information to their communities. To facilitate this, in 2016 CSD worked with the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate to develop the online multicultural directory. The directory is now firmly established and operating on the CSD website.
The directory helps multicultural community organisations to connect with other organisations with complementary goals, to build stronger working relationships and, importantly, to serve as a virtual conduit to inform other Canberrans of what is happening across the ACT in terms of events, activities and other initiatives. To date, over 123 community organisations have registered and established their online presence using the online multicultural directory. CSD also facilitates the distribution of a weekly multicultural e-news bulletin to the Canberra community. Multicultural community leaders provide information on cultural events and programs for inclusion in the bulletin, which is delivered to over 6,000 people.
Under the third objective—capitalising on the benefits of cultural diversity—the ACT government actively promotes and supports cultural diversity by celebrating and commemorating a range of significant multicultural events. In recent months we celebrated Ramadan in the City, enjoyed the World Curry Festival and marked World Refugee Week, to name a few. In February we held one of Canberra’s most iconic events, the National Multicultural Festival, and prior to that we celebrated Diwali and the Lunar New Year. I am sure that all members of this place are aware just how full the multicultural calendar is, demonstrating the breadth of diversity in our city and the enthusiasm of so many communities for sharing their culture.
Cultural diversity brings with it many benefits and opportunities. To ensure that we are a city of opportunity for all, we also need to address the unique needs of people from culturally diverse backgrounds. Poor English language skills and limited employment opportunities are key drivers for social exclusion. We need to ensure that new arrivals to Canberra are supported to become job ready by assisting them to improve their English language proficiency and access workplace training and employment placements.
This year the ACT government is commencing delivery of an election commitment to provide $1.4 million over four years to support new migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to improve their English language skills and to provide workforce
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