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NSW Caretaker Convention in effect on this site from Friday 3 March 2023.
Time: 1:35pm – 2:25pm
Location: Hunter Room
Facilitator: Michelle Chen, News Presenter, SBS Mandarin News team
Laura Luna-Zamora & Kat O'Neill
Settlement Services International (SSI)
About the presentation
The objective of the presentation is to showcase how SSI embeds community engagement into our work with people from refugees and asylum-seeking backgrounds and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. We will share diverse case studies of best practices of authentic engagement with these multicultural communities that are flexible, community-led, place-based and tailored to their community aspirations, challenges and strengths.
About the presenters
Laura Luna is SSI's Arts and Culture Manager. She currently leads and implements arts and culture strategic planning and operations across NSW and QLD, driving a range of initiatives that provide opportunities for artistic expression and cultural participation by and with communities. Laura is an award-winning professional and holds a Bachelor of Community Welfare with more than fourteen years’ experience in community, cultural and youth engagement.
Kat O'Neill is a positive deep thinker interested in learning from our past to find innovative ways to create strong connected communities. She is a Social Planner and Policymaker turned Community Engagement professional. Kat has worked in various roles at NGOs, local state and federal Governments and Consultancies. She is the Community Engagement Manager at SSI, turning outward to support Australia’s multicultural communities and newcomers to settle in Australia.
Yesy Sepulveda
Multicultural Officer, Centacare NENW
About the presentation
Updating my cultural app is an invitation to everyone, Australians and the migrant community, to learn together and develop their cultural competency. During the presentation, I will share an analogy that I have been using with my clients as a CALD officer to help them to adapt in their new country. This analogy compares our cultural programming to the apps used on phones that we constantly have to update, delete, and add.
About the presenter
Yesy Sepulveda came to Australia in 2016 to live in Tamworth, NSW. Yesy works as a Community Multicultural Officer for Centacare NENW, based in Tamworth. She facilitates education courses in cultural competency and adaptation. Yesy has been honoured as the Winner of the Zonta Club of Tamworth “Multicultural Advocate Women of the Year” in 2020.
Rosanna Barbero, CEO
Addison Road Community Organisation
About the presentation
Addison Road Food Pantry, a social enterprise of Addison Road Community Organisation (Addi Rd) has always had 2 main objectives: to rescue food from landfill, and to provide nourishing food to our most vulnerable. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Addi Rd developed an Emergency Food Preparedness Program as an extension of that commitment, providing emergency food relief for those who were and continue experiencing food and/or income stress, including Indigenous and CALD communities, people with disability, people experiencing homelessness and living in insecure accommodation, single-parent families, isolated seniors, LGBTIQ people and students/migrant workers stranded in Australia without welfare or family support. The presentation will outline the stages we went through to support the community through the pandemic as a best practice case study in responding to community needs.
About the presenter
Rosanna Barbero is the CEO of Addison Road Community Organisation and has served in this position for over 10 years. Rosanna describes her role as CEO of Addi Road as being “the captain who has to try and steer the ship”. With decades of work across aid and development in women’s rights, human rights and environmental justice, Rosanna has worked with a variety of large international, regional and multilateral agencies across the Global South. She believes this experience has taught her that ultimately it is the strength of communities that bring change.
05 Oct 2022
We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future.
Informed by lessons of the past, Department of Communities and Justice is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.
You can access our apology to the Stolen Generations.