Community outreach programs

The Faith-Based Governance & Dispute Resolution Conference was the first of its kind, bringing together community leaders, agencies, regulators and experts to consider best practice in governance and dispute resolution in light of the Royal Commissions.

This major event was attended by 340 delegates, from 17 different faith groups.

Delegates heard directly from two Royal Commissioners, representatives from government regulators, and expert governance and dispute resolution researchers and practitioners.

If your organisation is interested in attending future training on this topic, please email [email protected] .

The Aspire program provides leadership and governance training to high-achieving young Muslim women. The program is designed to help young women become leaders and influencers within their own communities.

Participants:

• work with Muslim community organisations
• improve a selected aspect of the organisation’s governance, and
• develop their individual leadership skills.

Thirty two young women completed the 2017 and 2018 Aspire programs, which were delivered by SZCC in partnership with the Islamic Council of Victoria.

SZCC was awarded a grant from the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation to deliver ‘Devolved Aspire’ for two more cohorts of young women in 2019 and 2020.  

The governance resources developed by the participants are freely available to download from the Aspire page on our website's activities & resources page.

Faith-based organisations serve the needs of CALD, refugee and newly arrived communities. In 2018, SZCC received funding from the Victorian Legal Services Board to pioneer a community development model designed to build governance excellence in faith-based community organisations.

The project has:

• created tailored and engaging resources on law and governance
• trained trusted leaders from diverse communities to become ‘Community Facilitators’ in law and governance
• supported these leaders to deliver governance workshops back to the boards of their faith-based organisations.

Read more about the program activities in 2020.

Good legal information about aspects of Australian law exists. However, it is not necessarily culturally accessible to CALD and newly arrived communities.

In 2019, SZCC received funding from the Australian Federal Government to deliver a project that augments existing services and resources about law by training trusted community influencers to provide information about key areas of law back into their communities in Brimbank and Melbourne’s outer western suburbs.

The program pilots a sustainable and scalable model of community education that has achieved the following:

• created culturally appropriate resources that provide answers to 'Frequently Asked Questions' on key aspects of law and the legal system
• trained 10 leaders to deliver workshops using the resources.

SZCC hopes to expand the program to other local government areas in the future.

Led by the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre in partnership with Benevolence Australia, this program will collaboratively develop pre-marriage counselling resources and training for Muslim couples.

The program aims to create opportunities for conversations with couples about how to build respectful relationships and strong marriages when they are at the beginning of their journeys together.

The project has been funded by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services as part of community initiatives to prevent family violence.

If you have questions or would like to know more, please contact the project coordinator Annie Wohlgehagen at [email protected] .

Read more about the Good Beginnings program.