A number of Councils in the Perth region have joined forces to discuss community services issues and grow their lists of contacts.
Melville City Council’s Cultural Development Officer – Multicultural, Marcia Coelho, together with Melville’s Community Development Officer for Seniors, initiated the group, which is known as the Multicultural and Seniors Local Government Officers Network. She said with a significant number of seniors and people from diverse and cultural backgrounds across the Perth region, there has been much interest.
“Melville is one of a few Councils in Western Australia that has a dedicated Multicultural officer within the Community Development area,” she said. “In most cases, a small team of staff are responsible for sharing a number of portfolios across the entire community development function.
“The Multicultural and Seniors Local Government Officers Network aims to assist those officers, by sharing resources and professional development information, not to mention building new partnerships and new projects collaboratively. It provides Community Development Officers across the Perth region with an opportunity to come together, network and talk about what they’re doing in an informal manner.”
All Councils in the Perth area are invited to join the network, which involves a series of informal meetings, as well as phone and email networks. When one group member receives information they think may be of interest to others, they send that information on electronically.
Having been established in 2007, the group held only one meeting last year, but aims to hold four meetings per year from 2008 onwards. The meetings feature guest speakers from different agencies, who present information of interest to the Officers.
At the first meeting of each year, participants will discuss the issues they are interested in and identify the types of guest speakers they would like to hear from.
At the 2007 meeting, the group heard from the Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, which spoke about what they do, explained Muslim culture and raised the group’s awareness. This year, the network will hear from a number of other service providers and community organisations addressing topical issues such as refugee settlement and available resources to assist in dealing with their complex situations.
Marcia Coelho said the informal nature of the meetings is key to the program’s success.
“It allows us to chat freely and people can ask questions about projects that other officers are working on,” she said. “We also discuss what we have tried, what works and what doesn’t, so that we avoid making the same mistakes twice.”
Marcia Coelho said the informality also allows people to feel more comfortable in expressing their ideas and participating in discussion.
“When meetings become formal, people are afraid to contribute their ideas,” she said. “The StepOne website will operate similarly to the Multicultural and Seniors Officers Network, as people will be able to refer to it, learn, and develop contact networks where they come across projects of interest to them.
“People do great things, but people don’t know about it. Learning how to share is key and StepOne will be a fantastic means of showing people what sharing can achieve.”
As Marcia is on the StepOne Steering Committee, she will discuss the website with the Multicultural and Seniors Officers Network at its next meeting.
She said the group will refer to the website throughout the year and use it as a basis for discussion.
