CALD Project

Tue, 08/19/2008 - 09:35 — admin


The CALD Project is a program of the Ethnic Child Care, Family and Community Services Co-operative Ltd and is funded by the NSW Department of Community Services.


1.INNER WEST, NORTHERN SYDNEY, SOUTH EAST SYDNEY & SOUTH WEST

This project has been created to support children's services to assist Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) families in the Inner West, Northern Sydney, Northern Beaches and South East Sydney and South West DoCS regions.

CALD project aims to:

  • Provide support, training and resources to children's services providers and staff.

  • Improve access opportunities and outcomes for families and children from CALD backgrounds.

  • Outreach CALD communities and engage Multicultural and other relevant Human and Community Services in achieving best outcomes for children.

  • Improve children's services capacity to support CALD families.

  • The project can also assist families and children's services to link-up with other CALD support services and human services available in their local Network.

CALD pamphlet Metro Central RegionCALD pamphlet South West RegionCALD Powerpoint Presentation Metro Central Sydney 2. Assistance for families & childrenEstablished in April 2006, the CALD Project has Project Officers who understand the needs and issues of CALD children and families that require Children's Services in the relevant DOCS funded Regions. People from CALD backgrounds are defined as being from a minority group in Australian society because of:

  • Ethnic and racial background
  • Country of birth or descent
  • Linguistic diversity
  • Ethno-religious and/or cultural background

3. Support from professionals

The project provides necessary support to Children's Services. The Project Officers are qualified Early Childhood Educators with experience in training and community development. CALD Project Officers can advise and assist Children's Services to be responsive to the contemporary, cultural and linguistic requirements of individual children and families.

The project covers the the Metro Central Region which covers local government areas, including Inner City (Sydney), Inner West, South East Sydney, Northern Sydney & the Northern Beaches and the Metropolitan South West Region (including Campbelltown, Camden, Wollondilly and Wingecarribee).

Children's Services include:

  • Preschools

  • Long day care

  • Occasional care

  • Vacation care

  • Family day care

  • Home-based care

  • Out-of-school hours care.

4. Strategies/outcomes for 2008

Strategies

Training for staff of children's services on Meaningful Celebrations, Cross Cultural Communication, Diverse Child Rearing Practices and Multicultural Programming was held in Waverley, Botany, Inner Sydney, Rockdale and Sutherland. For several of these LGA's, networking forum was organised and held to provide participants with the opportunity to meet workers and staff from local community centres, councils and other organisations that provide services to CALD communities. The aim of these forums was to -

  • provide children's services with information about local community organisations, and the types of support they provide to CALD families

  • to provide information about CALD communities within the local area from a community perspective

  • to provide a link between local children's services and community organisations for future reference and referral

  • provide the opportunity to discuss and ask questions about local support services

CALD Project Training

Other Outcomes and Achievements

The project also -

  • Developed resource materials on local and state based community services, groups and organisations that assist CALD children and families. 2007 saw the launch & dissemination of 3 new resources developed by the CALD Project (DVD- Cultural Treasure Chest and 2 posters, Keys To Cultural Inclusion & Welcoming Bilingual/Bicultural children & families). Resources Order form. Video

  • Provided information sessions to CALD parents on topics including accessing Children's Services, and rights as parents and other related topics. There has been a lot of interest from community groups and organisations for these sessions

  • Held information sessions for children's services workers that focus on the childrearing practices of African Communities, Arabic Muslim, Bangladeshi,Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Lebanese, Maori, South Sea Islander, Portuguese, Vietnamese communities. The Project Officers worked in partnerships with community associations including Indonesian Welfare Association, Al Zahra Muslim Women's Association, and the African Community Worker to organise these sessions. The CALD Project has also worked in partnership with organisations including Transcultural Mental Health, Chinese Australian Services Society (CASS), Marrickville Family Support Services, Pathways Early Intervention, Canterbury Bankstown Migrant Interagency, Summer Hill Community Centre, African Communities Council and Centacare.

5. Multicultural Contact List for Children's Services

South East Sydney Download PDF here.

Inner West East Sydney Download PDF here. 

Northern Sydney and Northern Beaches Download PDF here.

South West Sydney Download PDF here.

6. Translated materials for parents requiring information about Children's Services

Translated materials are available for downloading here.

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