Arabic Welfare Incorporated

As key local provider and only Arabic Speaking ethnospecific provider of federal government funded settlement services (SETSClient Services and SETSCommunity Capacity Building), Arabic Welfare has extensive and longstanding engagement with our target group and local stakeholder organisations. Our 38+ year history as a settlement service provider has resulted in consistently high Settlement Service client usage, with strong efficiencies in service provision and extensive engagement with our target group. In 2019 20 our reach extended to over 1,400 refugee and migrant clients in casework and we coordinated over 300 group sessions to provide information, education and skills to strengthen capacity and participation in community life. Our target community are migrants and newly arrived refugees from diverse Arabic Speaking countries. These communities are represented across 20 countries, with the majority from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and some of the northern African countries. We service a high percentage of newly arrived communities from Syria and Iraq, who are most vulnerable and experience significant language barriers and effects of war trauma. Arabic Welfare is well positioned as we are a key gateway and linkage service for other important program and service providers. Furthermore, our established links with local AMEP providers, schools, youth services, sports clubs, leisure centres and Arabic community organisations/leaders provides our project with a strong platform for stakeholder collaboration to achieve project efficiencies and effective outcomes. Our history of service delivery to refugees has evolved over the decades with the introduction of diverse programs which have reflected the changing needs of waves of refugee groups and have also reflected the growing body of literature on effective refugee settlement and participation in community life. For example, our introduction of a gambling program and a family violence program about five years ago has responded to growing research and increased identification of the specificity of these issues among our target group. Role of bilingual/bicultural service: Our social workers, community development workers & youth workers are all bilingual & communicate with clients directly in their first language. Direct language communication offers benefits and cost efficiencies to service provision, including: establishment of strong client rapport; no delays in service provision; increased availability of staff time to engage with greater number of clients; and language/cultural specific nuances are rendered accurately, allowing for strong target group engagement.