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Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre (SMRC) Celebrate 21 years of Service

The Southern Migrant & Refugee Centre (SMRC) celebrated 21 Years of servicing multicultural communities on the 15th October 2014 at their Dandenong office.

The celebration included a vibrant performance from a Sudanese dance group, and speeches by Senator the Hon Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and CEO Jenny Semple.

Jenny Semple shared her journey of working at the centre since 1998, and screened a video that has been developed for the anniversary showing an overview of  '21 years of stories' from various clients, volunteers and workers of the SMRC.

The Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre are a not-for-profit community based agency who provide services to migrants and refugees living in the southern region of Melbourne, covering the local government areas of City of Greater Dandenong, City of Casey and Shire of Cardinia and surrounding areas.

SMRC employ 61 office-based staff, full-time and part-time, 95 bilingual personal workers, and 100 volunteers, speaking over 100 languages.

Watch the SMRC 21 years of stories video

SMRC 21 years launch Andrea and Felicita resize

Image: Andrea Baranski, Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing and Felicita Sivasudasan, Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre

 Acknowledgements

Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing acknowledges and pays respect to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, on whose land this website was developed. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their ancestors and elders, both past and present and acknowledge their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We hope our work contributes to the wider project of respect and recognition between cultures in Australia. Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing receives project funding from the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care to administer the Partners in Culturally Appropriate Care (PICAC) program in Victoria.

 

Did you know?

Australia map
37%
37% of people aged 65 years and over in Australia were born overseas.
old people
400
There are over 400 separately identified languages spoken in Australian homes.
religion sign
120
Australians follow more than 120 religious and spiritual beliefs.
hands
28% & 20%
28% percent of people using home care and 20% percent of people using permanent residential care are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
workforce
36%
36% of care attendants in residential aged care are identified as being from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
australia map
250
Australia’s Indigenous peoples are two distinct cultural groups made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. But there is great diversity within these two broadly described groups exemplified by the over 250 different language groups spread across the nation.