2019 NALG winner profile – City of Stirling, WA
An employment project in Perth that was inspired by a council officer’s research trip to the Canadian city of Toronto and adapted to local conditions has received the National Award for Excellence at the 2019 National Awards for Local Government.
Sarah Janali, the City of Stirling’s Service Lead for Cultural Diversity and Community, created the Kaleidoscope Initiative to help new arrivals to gain work in their field of expertise through ways including by matching them with employers and running a mentoring program.
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“Many people have worked really hard to bring this idea to life – that includes people within our Council but also within our partner organisations,” she said from Toronto where she’s updating her Canadian colleagues about the initiative’s progress.
“Winning the national award is a great recognition of this collaborative effort, but more importantly of the great community outcomes that are being achieved through the Kaleidoscope Initiative.”
Mayor Mark Irwin agrees, saying it shows the “big heart and welcoming nature” of Australian people and organisations to help newcomers in their initial years to settle in to Australia.
“The award and the recognition that the Kaleidoscope has received on winning the NALG Excellence awards are a testimony to the effectiveness and the impact of the various partnerships that Kaleidoscope has formed across all tiers of Federal, State and Local governments, employers, community organisations, service providers, professional bodies and individual champions working towards building a diverse and inclusive workforce,” he said.
“This award win not only help Kaleidoscope showcase the wonderful work our partners are doing in their individual and collaborative capacity across Western Australia but the great synergies, effectiveness and results we all can achieve if we come together pooling our resources, energies, experiences, insights and networks across Australia.”
Some 38 percent of the City of Stirling’s 220,000 residents were born overseas, and the council offers language support for 10 languages other than English.
Kaleidoscope helps communities to create their own professional networks, share information on how people can set up a business, and a mentoring program that matches newcomers with mentors from their industry or occupation. Four community organisations – the Iranian community of WA, Organisation of African community, the Indian Society of WA and the Association of Bhutanese in Perth Inc have joined hands to work together with Kaleidoscope to share resources and solve common problems.
The mentoring program has run two mentoring cycles since September 2018, of whom nine out of 13 pilot mentees in the first round, and nine out of 23 in the second, have secured jobs in their profession or industry.
The mentoring program is funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Social Services and is operated by the City of Stirling, City of Canning, and the Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre.
“It’s been a privilege to work with the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council on the development of the Kaleidoscope Initiative,” Sarah Janali said.
“I connected with TRIEC in 2015 whilst on a Churchill Fellowship. Rather than reinventing the wheel we’ve been able to work with them to adapt their highly successful programs to our local context.
“Presenting with TRIEC at the International Metropolis Conference in Toronto this week is a great opportunity to showcase our international partnership and highlight the outcomes that can be achieved through working in collaboration.”
Kaleidoscope is funded by the Western Australia Government and supported by City of Stirling and the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.
Organisers have set their sites on further achievements.
Nirmal Singh, Kaleidoscope’s Project Officer, said the initiative has achieved good results for newcomers, attracted interest from an array of agencies, and fostered partnerships across geography and levels of government.
“Kaleidoscope wants to benefit from these expanding partnership synergies and expand the program so we can create programs that cater to specific groups of newcomers and multicultural communities, such as women, students or entrepreneurs,” he said.
“For example, through separate funding from the Australian Government, we are working on understanding specific barriers that newcomers on secondary visas face. Our research shows that most of these newcomers are women who face additional networking, financial, cultural and other barriers in accessing Australian employment.
“Kaleidoscope is also working to develop a body of research work to put forward an evidence-based case for barriers newcomers face, the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce, then economic benefits that the employers and the wider Australian community can reap through early re-connections to employment.”
Mayor Mark Irwin said other future goals include developing a business case to shape the Kaleidoscope project into an Immigrant Employment Council which acts as a peak body and drives the conversation on the diverse and inclusive workforce.
“We would also like to develop a body of job-search resources and single-point window for the newcomers to access knowledge and referrals to the various agencies that can support them in their career journey and continue to work with our employer partners to develop internship, volunteering and work experience opportunities for our newcomers that can help them attain local experience in their own professions,” he said.
“Another goal is to expand the Kaleidoscope Mentoring Program to include newcomers from Local Governments beyond the City of Stirling and the City of Canning, provide an avenue of our employer partners accessing our newcomer pool for advertising their vacancies and recruiting from our mentees, and develop a financially sustainable model for the Kaleidoscope Program so that it can provide its existing and proposed services beyond the current Kaleidoscope funding end dates.”
Other winners of the 2019 awards:
City of Stirling (WA) – Road Safety
Holly Cowdery – Susan Grace Benny Award for Women in Local Government
City of Belmont (WA) – Creating Vibrant and Cohesive Communities Through the Arts
George Town Council (TAS) – Contributing to Regional Growth
Moreton Bay Regional Council (QLD) – Disability Access and Inclusion
Lake Macquarie City (NSW) – Boosting Productivity Through Infrastructure
Image: From left, City of Stirling CEO Stuart Jardine, Service Lead for Cultural Diversity and Community Sarah Janali, and Mayor Mark Irwin at the 2019 National General Assembly. Photo by Hiebl Photography.