The project objective is to develop and implement a state-wide community awareness raising program on Elder Abuse Prevention in partnership with Senior Rights Victoria to meet the needs of clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Employment type: 0.6 EFT (3 days per week) 45.6 per fortnight

View the position description here 

Applications close 5pm, 2nd July 2018

ECCV Board of Directors: 

Nalliah Suriyakumaran
Eddie Micallef 
Marion Lau
Joseph Caputo
Jude Ogbeide Ediae
Parsu Sharma-Luital
Frances Prince
Kris Pavlidis 
Bruna Pasqua
Zeynep Yesilyurt
Helena Trinnick
Jenny Semple
Sundram Sivamalai
Peter Mousaferiadis

After verifying all of the applications, the Returning Officer held a ballot to decide the order that candidates would be listed in. This was witnessed by several ECCV staff. 

The 29 nominees are listed below:

Nalliah Suriyakumaran
Darebin Ethnic Communities Council Inc.
Nominee Statement

Eddie Micallef
Maltese Community Council of Victoria
Nominee Statement

Marion Lau OAM JP
Chinese Community Society of Victoria
Nominee Statement

Joseph A Caputo
Federazione Pugliese D'Australia
Nominee Statement

Savindhi Perera-Jainudeen
The Committee for Sri Lanka Inc.
Nominee Statement

Jude Ogbeide Ediae
Nigerian Society of Victoria
Nominee Statement

Parsu Sharma-Luital 
Bhutanese Community in Australia Inc.
Nominee Statement

Frances Prince
Jewish Community Council of Victoria
Nominee Statement

Mahinda Wickramasuriya
Sri Lankan Ethnic Communities Association Inc.
Nominee Statement

Dean Aqo Wickham
Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council Inc.
Nominee Statement

Dr Apollo Nsubuga-Kyobe
Ethnic Council of Shepparton & Districts
Nominee Statement

Kris Pavlidis
Pronia
Nominee Statement

Bruna Pasqua
CO.AS.IT
Nominee Statement

Zeynep Yesilyurt
Victorian Immigrant & Refugee Women's Coalition
Nominee Statement

Wilhelm Owen Morgan
Australia Ceylon Fellowship
Nominee Statement

Bwe Thay
Communities Council on Ethnic Issues (Eastern Region)
Nominee Statement

Gaetano Greco
VICSEG New Futures
Nominee Statement

Dalal Samaan
Australian Assyrian Arts & Literature Foundation
Nominee Statement

Marian Pawlik OAM
Polish Community Council of Victoria
Nominee Statement

Helena Trinnick
Slovenian Welfare & Information Office
Nominee Statement

Jenny Semple
Centre for Multicultural Youth
Nominee Statement

Dr Moses G Adepoju
Care Africa
Nominee Statement

Sundram Sivamalai
Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council 
Nominee Statement

Sam Afra
Ethnic Communities Council of the South East
Nominee Statement

Dr Ka Sing Chua
Chinese Association of Victoria Inc.
Nominee Statement

Peter Mousaferiadis
Cultural Infusion
Nominee Statement

Sudhir Shakya
Nepalese Association of Victoria
Nominee Statement

Dr Christine Lee
Gippsland Ethnic Communities Council
Nominee Statement

Fatime Hoblos
Victorian Lebanese Community Council
Nominee Statement

Where: Deakin Downtown, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne.

When: Thursday 6 April (Women’s group) 10:30am – 12pm.

When: Friday 7 April (Community CEOs group) 10:30am – 12pm.

Light lunch and a $20 Coles-Myer gift card will be provided as a token of our appreciation for your time and input.

For further information and to RSVP please contact Nathan Gardner at ngardner@eccv.org.au 

Where: Deakin Downtown, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne.

When: Thursday 6 April (Women’s group) 10:30am – 12pm.

When: Friday 7 April (Community CEOs group) 10:30am – 12pm.

Light lunch and a $20 Coles-Myer gift card will be provided as a token of our appreciation for your time and input.

For further information and to RSVP please contact Nathan Gardner at ngardner@eccv.org.au 

ECCV Chairman, Eddie Micallef, said the discussion paper was an important document that had the real potential to reduce the gap between what is required in terms of interpreters in the health system, and what is currently available - which has many deficiencies.

“Our Stories, Our Voices assesses the current understanding within culturally diverse communities of the role of accredited interpreters within Victoria’s health care system. In particular, the paper examines whether culturally diverse consumers are aware of, know how to access and recognise the importance of interpreting services when using health services,” Mr Micallef said.

“The ability to access health services and information is vital for culturally diverse consumers to live a high quality of life. However, low English proficiency, and lower levels of health literacy within multicultural communities lead to poorer health outcomes, more hospitalisations and other inequalities.

“Many migrants, refugees and asylum seekers do not have the English language skills to understand what information is required by health professionals and clearly communicate their needs. This is compounded by health services, which are often uninformed or unresponsive to the way culture impacts on health communication.”

In 2012, ECCV published a report  An Investment Not an Expense: Enhancing Health Literacy in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities to highlight the importance of identifying barriers to improving health literacy and enhancing access to language services, particularly accredited interpreters.

“This current discussion paper provides a fuller picture through direct community consultations and focuses on the use of accredited interpreters by people with low English proficiency accessing health services in Victoria. It seeks to understand the role accredited interpreters play in Victoria’s healthcare system and whether consumers are sufficiently aware of, and request, qualified interpreters when using health services,” Mr Micallef said.

“The consultation findings show that although a majority of respondents found it hard to communicate with health professionals in English, many are still unaware of the role and importance of using accredited interpreters.

“This report is crucially important for policy makers and anyone working in the transcultural health sector seeking to better understand the use of interpreter services in Victoria’s health system to make a real difference to the health outcomes of our multicultural communities.

“Recommendations in this report include the development of an awareness-raising campaign to promote the role and engagement of accredited interpreters.

“This includes supporting culturally diverse consumers and their families and carers and service providers to become more knowledgeable about how to access and engage interpreting services and to understand their importance in reaching better health outcomes.” 

View the full discussion paper at: http://www.eccv.org.au/library/ECCV_Interpreters_discussion_paper_FINAL_March_2017_web.pdf

The workshop is aimed at program coordinators and managers of ethno-specific and multicultural service providers who previously received HACC funding.

Topics covered will include: context of NDIS & CDC, engaging organisations, customers and external stakeholders, adapting systems, staffing, services and marketing. The cost is $50 for two staff to attend.

Register at: https://www.trybooking.com/259310.

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

Federation Room, Parliament of Victoria, Melbourne

Tuesday, 31 January at 9.00am-10.00am

Arrival time: 8.50 am (be there 10 min before)

A. Introduction

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to speak at this Parliamentary Joint Committee hearing on Freedom of speech in Australia on behalf of Victorians from culturally diverse communities.

My name is Joe Caputo and I represent the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria – also known as ECCV. I’m speaking in my role as an ECCV Board Director.

ECCV is a state-wide peak advocacy member-based organisation that represents ethnic and multicultural organisations and people from culturally diverse backgrounds. The ECCV has over two hundred Ethic Organisations affiliated and active in our network.

I am here with my colleague ECCV’s Executive Officer Dr Irene Bouzo. Also present to assist us is our Senior Policy Officer Carl Gopalkrishnan and Policy Officer Galina Kozoolin.

B Main Points

As you are aware ECCV has already made a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights as part of the Inquiry into Freedom of speech in Australia. It included some strategies and recommendations to manage the expectations which may have led to this inquiry.

I want to make a few key points today from our submission.

Firstly, that the ECCV believes that maintaining Section 18C of The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 as it is, is crucial to maintaining our social cohesion at this current time.

Secondly, weakening 18C could have far reaching effects including trade and investment from our region.

And, finally, that Section 18C needs to be strengthened by including ‘religion’ to reflect currently high levels of discrimination aimed at some culturally diverse communities.

C Main Points

ECCV welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Government’s Inquiry into Freedom of Speech by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights; however, we are concerned by the terms of reference of this inquiry.

With almost half of Victoria’s population born overseas or with one or two parents born overseas, ECCV believes that the Act needs strengthening - not watering down.

ECCV is particularly concerned about the increase of hostility toward Muslims and other minority groups in Australia. In recent years there has been a rise in anti-multiculturalism rallies and racist attacks which promote feelings of exclusion and fear in the community.

In our written submission we included stories from our consultations with Australian Muslim mothers in the south eastern suburban area of Melbourne. They are distressed by high levels of discrimination towards them including hostile behaviours where they live, in parks and shopping centres and on roads with vehicles, including through physical attacks and verbal abuse, like hate speech.

One mother described an incident where large dogs were intentionally let loose on her children in a park by local residents. Many of these women no longer leave their homes as a result of the free speech of their neighbours and we are learning that it is a pattern occurring across Melbourne.

ECCV have examined the Human Rights Commission data and find that their community education efforts to help people understand their rights and responsibilities are appropriate to that of other agencies with a compliance role. We don’t see community education as solicitation for complaints.

The Commission’s data tell us that only a very small proportion of 18C complaints proceed through their complaints process with even a smaller proportion proceeding beyond conciliation to court.

As you know, the bar for the Court to apply 18C is much higher than it is to register a complaint, and of course it is not seen as a criminal act. When you further add in exemptions from Section 18D and the fact that we have debated this extensively in 2014 and find that the Act is doing its job well.

Given the low levels of racial discrimination cases actually proceeding to Court, ECCV believes the Commission’s ability to vet enquiries for ‘vexatious complaints’ and to refer genuine complaints to the Courts is quite strong.

Where ECCV sees room for improvement is in the Commission’s communication strategy to manage people’s expectations. We want to see the Commission play a much stronger role in community education to ensure that the community understand the limitations of free speech, and in so doing, make clear the difference between community education and compliance from encouraging vexatious complaints.

Culturally appropriate community education and interpreter services will better manage community expectations throughout the Commission’s complaints process. This could have been reviewed as part of normal business improvement and not a Parliamentary Inquiry.

Simply making translation and interpreter service information on the Commission’s website larger – it is currently in fine print at the bottom of the home page – will help to manage expectations and support genuine complaints. Despite these shortcomings, the Commission is performing well. Commission data informs us that 82% of complainants and 93% of respondents feel that they were treated fairly in the complaint’s process.

ECCV sees the Inquiry’s terms of reference potentially leading to negative impressions of Australia’s social cohesion, not only among multicultural and faith communities in Victoria, but with our regional and global trading partners, our international investors and international students. ECCV wants to see the Government strengthen 18C – not weaken it - and to recognize that Australia is a vibrant destination for qualified migrants, innovative ideas and creative talent.

This is an important juncture in Australian history and ECCV implores all parliamentarians to take full responsibility for the wording in their terms of reference and in their public comments.

Those of us that have lived in times past when it was okay to openly discriminate, abuse and intimidate other fellow members of our community just because they were different, DO NOT wish to return to the “good old days”. The question for all of us is whether we want to continue nourishing an harmonious multicultural society or whether we want a divided society based on the colour of one’s skin or the what faith one chooses to practice.

The good old days are gone, let’s make sure that they are buried and let’s move on!

D. Close

On behalf of the ECCV I thank you for the opportunity to present here today. My colleagues and I welcome your questions.

ECCV, Deakin University and the Australian Intercultural Society invite community stakeholders and individuals to a consultation on multiculturalism, interculturalism and diversity policies in Victoria.

We are seeking your reflections on how policies that engage with ethnic diversity in Victoria can be improved as part of our joint research. Participants will receive a $20 Coles-Myer gift card as a token of our appreciation for your time and input.

Deakin Downtown, 727 Collins St, Melbourne, Monday 6 February, 2017, 11:00am – 12.30pm (Women’s groups);  Tuesday 7 and 10 February (Mixed groups); Wednesday 8 Feb (Community leaders groups).

RSVP by Friday 3 February to reem.sweid@deakin. edu.au

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/vic/2017/01/17/australia-day-billboard-removed/

MEDIA RELEASE

The Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV) has strongly condemned attacks on an ad featuring Muslim girls wearing hijabs – as part of an Australia Day 2017 electronic billboard promotion – as racist, ignorant and highly divisive.

ECCV Chairperson, Eddie Micallef, said reports that the ad on a rotating electronic billboard in Cranbourne was “pulled” because of threats to the advertising company QMS are “extremely disappointing”.

“I have been informed that the ad - which featured two Muslim girls - was part of a electronic billboard that featured a number of rotating images of people from different cultural backgrounds photographed at last year’s Australia Day celebrations.

“The fact that the only picture that has been targeted for criticism is one of culturally diverse Australians demonstrates how blatantly racist and narrowly focused the attacks are.

“Apparently, this was one of a number of rotating images that were meant to show and celebrate graphically and visually the great cultural diversity that is such an integral part of Australian society.

“Australia is a country built on immigration. Multiculturalism has been acknowledged at all levels of government and within the wider community as one of our greatest strengths, and is what makes our society so culturally rich and vibrant.

“The fact that it has been reported that these threats to the advertising company QMS has forced it to withdraw the ad because of fears for the safety of its employees is an absolute disgrace.

“These threats are nothing more than mindless, ill-informed acts of racism which refuse to acknowledge the reality of the society we are currently living in. We are a highly successful, multicultural society, which gains many benefits from our great cultural diversity and to state otherwise is to go against reality.

“I have been informed that there is a campaign to raise funds to have the ad re-instated, and I commend and congratulate those who are acting to promote an image – that is one of many – celebrating the great cultural richness we have in this country as part of Australia Day 2017 celebrations.”

Tuesday 24 January 2017, 9.15am – 1:00pm (AEDT), Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV), Level 11, Room 11.01, 60 Collins Street, Melbourne.

Registration is required. More details and bookings at: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/home-care-forum-2017-an-eccv-ageing-and-aged-care-event-tickets-31010448085

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has published 135 submissions from individuals and organisations for its inquiry into Freedom of Speech in Australia.

Many opposed any changes to 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

The Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria made a joint submission with 83 other religious and community groups, including Muslim, Christian, African, Sikh and Jewish organisations.

Council Chair Eddie Micallef said many migrants, especially the most recent arrivals, would be left feeling very vulnerable by the watering down of section 18C.

"I think it just gives those who have a racist bent some encouragement," Mr Micallef told SBS.

"It will encourage that group and it will potentially cut across the social cohesion that we've been able to build up in Australia over many years," he said.

Read more in this SBS TV report:

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/12/29/18c-inquiry-community-groups-warn-backlash-over-changes

The Next Generation of Multicultural Victoria

ECCV 2016 Statewide Conference

MELBOURNE, Monday September 26, 2016  – This November, Victoria’s peak policy advocacy body representing ethnic and multicultural communities and organizations across Victoria: The Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, along with the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council, is excited to be hosting the Conference : The Next Generation of Multicultural Victoria  -  Intergenerational Perspectives in the historic town of Ballarat, the fastest growing regional city in Victoria.

For over 40 years, the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV) has been the link between multicultural communities, government and the wider community. We are the Voice of Multicultural Victoria and the peak policy advocacy body for ethnic and multicultural organizations, proudly advocating for culturally diverse communities, government and the wider community.

The ECCV 2016 Statewide Conference will lead public discussion on the changing face of multiculturalism in Victoria and generational transition, with people from different generations speaking on a vision for the future. The aim of the Conference is for ECCV, individuals and organizations to participate in a commitment or pledge to make practical and achievable changes in the next three years and beyond. Confirmed Facilitators, keynote and guest speakers will include:

★  The Hon Robin Scott Minister for Multicultural Affairs  ★ Helen Kapalos VMC  ★Peter van Vliet  Department of Immigration and Border Protection ★  Colleen Hartland Victorian Green MP ★ Joshua Morris Liberal MP  ★  Carmel Guerra  CMY ★ Aleem Ali  Welcoming Cities, Amy Hubbard  Capire Consulting Group, Anthea Hancocks  Scanlon Foundation ★ Dr Gabriel Garcia Ochoa & Professor Susanna Scarparo  Monash University, Bachelor of Global Studies ★  Nyok Gor South Sudan Australia Peace Initiative ★ Professor Andrew Markus Monash University ★Jessica Williamson  Migration Lawyer ★ Mark Karlovic Sovereign Hill Museums Assoc ★ Tasmeen Chopra Cultural Curator, Author ★ Kelly Talagan Code Club Australia ★ George Fong Lateral Plains ★ Nivy Balachandran Juris Doctor  ★ Jenny Taing Vanguard ★ Lorraine Ngwenya Useful Link  ★  Gitanjali Maksay Infoxchange  - Go Digi Project ★  Peter Mousaferiadis Cultural Infusion ★ Zakia Baig Hazara Women’s Friendship Network ★ Melinda Leth  Ernst & Young (subject to change*)

Hosted by James Liotta  award winning actor, performer, comedian, M.C/presenter and Ambassador: Bully Zero Australia

Also featuring entertainment and inspirational speakers throughout the day this will be the multicultural event of the year!

MORE INFORMATION and REGISTRATION DETAILS

CONFERENCE

Price:        Private and Public Sector:  $150 / person  

               ECCV members, Concession and Community Sector: $120 / person

               Young Refugees, Other New Arrivals, Students: $75 / person

PRE-CONFERENCE DINNER

Price:         Private and Public Sector:  $80 / person  

                ECCV members, Concession and Community Sector: $65 / person

To Register:  for the Conference and or Pre-Conference Dinner please visit:  https://www.trybooking.com/MTLB

Contact: Toula Elefsiniotis, Events Project Officer for the programe, partnerships or any other Conference Enquiries

T +61 3 9349 4122   E conference@eccv.org.au   W: www.eccv.org.au

An audience of up to fifty people including The Hon. Nicholas Wakening, state member for Ferntree Gully and Shadow Minister for Education, heard from speakers Eddie Micallef, ECCV chairperson, and Marian Pawlik, President of Polish Council community Services, about how elder abuse affects people in the Polish community, and how the project and resources work to spread awareness of the issues and where seniors can go for help.

Elder abuse is more hidden in ethnic communities than in the general population. It is more hidden for many reasons – shame, the stigma of admitting that a family relationship has broken down, not knowing where to turn for help. 

An advisory group made up of services including Polish Community Council of Victoria, Jewish Care & Polaron Language Services, have provided input into how elder abuse affects older people in their community.

The work of the advisory group informed the development of resources specific to their community, including a bilingual brochure, a community education resource kit and a short film overdubbed in Polish.

Bilingual workers have also been trained to deliver community education on elder abuse and will be using these resources to support this training.

This is part of a project that has worked with various communities since 2012 in partnership with Seniors Rights Victoria and funded by the Victorian Government.

Further information and resources can be found here: 

http://eccv.org.au/projects/elder-abuse-prevention-in-ethnic-communities/