Partnerships

When considering partnerships with services and agencies, it helps to think broadly:

• Local government (e.g. leisure centres, libraries, parks).
• Child, family, carer and multicultural services.
• Youth, disability, financial and counselling services
• Health and wellbeing organisations and programs (primary health care; dental; community health; women’s, youth and refugee health nurses; nutrition; ‘walking bus’; reproductive and sexual health; drug and alcohol services).
• Out-of-school programs (homework clubs, playgroups, school holiday, after-school care).
• Community groups (men’s sheds, rooms for hire, community centres and kitchens, computer access stations, support groups).
• Sports clubs, grounds and facilities.
• Education and art programs (including adult education).
• Employment networks.

Families often value communal approaches to supporting their children’s development and addressing problems. This includes your school consulting and working with their community.

Students and their families are likely to identify with a community who share ties around culture, language, country/region of origin and refugee experiences. In such communities, respect for elders, connections and obligations to other members of the community play a role in each person’s identity.

During settlement there is collective trauma for such communities related to the impacts of their refugee experiences. Our consultations with students indicate they think there is little connection between their school and their community. To remedy this, your school can reach out and support students’ communities to recover by facilitating connections and restoring dignity. This will primarily mean practically nurturing partnerships with the local network of family groups to which students belong. It may also involve connecting with formal community associations.

What you can do

• Employ a multicultural education aide (MEA) or family liaison worker to assist with identifying and engaging parents/carers and their communities. They are well placed to liaise with members of the community and foster communication.
• Invite communities to share their cultural life and story with your school community and to celebrate significant days.
• Provide communities with access to school meeting rooms and halls without hire costs.
• Seek advice and help from communities with the development of culturally relevant policies and practices (e.g. establishing a prayer room, and culturally appropriate food for the canteen).
• Invite community members to a staff meeting to share their knowledge and skills.
• Invite community representatives to give speeches and present awards at school occasions.
• Partner with an agency and community leaders to offer interpreted information sessions that deal with key issues communities of refugee backgrounds face.
• Try to have as much of your school’s written material as possible translated into community languages.
• Call upon recommended community members to act as cultural mediators and to assist with problems as they arise.

Some schools have been enrolling and welcoming students of refugee backgrounds for a number of years, while others are new to it.

Either way, schools have much to gain from partnering with other schools in their locality and beyond.

Benefits include:

• Improving your school-wide strategies for supporting students and their families by learning from other schools.
• Promoting your staff’s wellbeing through networking and learning with staff from other schools.
• Contributing to sector-wide improvement to supporting students of refugee backgrounds.
• Enhancing school pride through sharing your struggles and celebrating achievements with other schools.
• Developing collaborative programs around supporting students’ transitions and pathways.
• Working together and combining resources to hold special events for students and staff.

Partnerships can take a variety of forms, including:

• Networking and exchanging information.
• Planning activities and events for a common purpose (e.g. transition programs, student voice activities).
• Sharing resources (e.g. facilities, buses, enrolment templates).
• Enhancing the capacity of the other school/s for mutual benefit (staff mentoring and coaching).

The Refugee Education Support Program (RESP) is a partnership between participating schools grouped in geographical clusters. The schools work together around their action plans by meeting once a term to workshop their practices and progress.