Social Justice & Inclusion

Social justice and inclusion – putting things in perspective
Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis iQ Newsletter (ISA Newsletter) - a conversation about social justice and inclusion. We hear from Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis responding to the questions:

• What does social justice mean to you?
• What does social justice have to do with inclusion?

Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis is the CEO of Ethnic Child Care Family and Community Services Cooperative. She is a passionate and committed advocate for children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Vivi responds:

In re relation to children’s and other services, and the Australian society as a whole, social justice is the right of all Australians to equality of treatment and opportunity and the removal of barriers of race, ethnicity, culture, ability, religion, language, gender or place of birth from all mainstream government, community and private sector services and at all levels of Australian society. Social justice aims to expand opportunities for, and reduce barriers to, full participation in economic, social and political life for all Australians.
To promote social justice and inclusion in their daily work with children and families, child care services can:

• Welcome, value, respect, accept and promote the cultural, linguistic, religious and other attributes children and families bring to the service;
• Be culturally competent in order to include and work with this diversity and provide an appropriate and relevant service that meets their expressed needs;
• Ensure policies accommodate this diversity as an integral part of their service delivery, curriculum and programming – this should not be a ‘one off’;
• Communicate with families in their own language and talk to them about how child care services in Australia operate, and about their rights, responsibilities, obligations and expectations;
• Use multicultural and multilingual resources to reinforce children’s home language and cultural identity, and to demonstrate to families that their cultural and linguistic practices are welcomed, respected and valued.

In working with children and families, staff should look to embrace innovation and make changes, look at their attitudes and values, be open to new ideas and practices, and adopt different responses, perceptions and flexibility in their service delivery.
“Social justice is about making sure that every Australian- Indigenous and non-Indigenous – has choices about how they live and the means to make those choices’. (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissions, 2003)