Cross-Cultural Training and Consultancy

Upcoming training sessions

Cross-Cultural Responsiveness Training

Over the past 60 years, the Brotherhood of St Laurence has developed specialist expertise in working with individuals and families from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and those seeking asylum. Our Cross-Cultural Consultancy Team offers half-day or full-day training programs – tailored to the learning needs of participants – to build the skills and confidence of staff and volunteers working with people with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. We are passionate about building the capacity of our sector colleagues, as well as employers, for cross-cultural responsiveness by offering training in this area.

Our interactive training workshops empower people working with CALD individuals by equipping them with:

• frameworks through which to reflect on one’s own culture and other cultures
• an understanding of the impact of the settlement experience on new arrivals
• practical strategies to address barriers and misunderstandings faced by, and harness strengths of, CALD individuals
• increased confidence to work with diverse communities.

Our training courses can include the following modules:

• Working with families and children – empowers and supports participants to work with CALD families in ways that foster engagement and participation. The module can be tailored to have an early years focus.
• Working with young people – focuses on the needs, challenges and strengths of young people. The module can be tailored to focus on navigating transitions to employment.
• Working with people with disability and the NDIS – focuses on cultural conceptions of disability and the challenges posed by the NDIS for people with disability of CALD backgrounds.
• Serving Multicultural Communities – Reception Staff Training – provides practical tips on how to be culturally responsive in the presentation of your office spaces as well as through reception liaison to ensure everyone feels comfortable and accepted.
• Volunteers working with CALD youth/individuals/families – builds an appreciation for the crucial role volunteers play in supporting families during their settlement journey, and provides tips and advice on navigating challenges that volunteers can face with CALD families. The module can be tailored for those working with individuals and youth.
• Mentoring: harnessing the strengths of disadvantaged young people – builds awareness of the reality of poverty in Australia and how it manifests and impacts on people’s daily lives, as well as the do’s and don’ts of mentoring when working with CALD communities.
• Diversity and inclusion – fosters an awareness of diversity and inclusion amongst staffing peers, covering multicultural, indigenous, disability, sexuality and gender identity, as well as providing proactive and practice strategies for supervisors on how to harness the strengths of their diverse workforce.

Workshops are available in Melbourne, regional Victoria and/or nationally, and are suitable for not-for-profit, government and private sector participants.

To arrange tailored training at your work site or request a proposal in response to your needs, please contact us directly at xcrt(at)bsl.org.au

Download our flyer.

Other Cross-Cultural Consultancy services

We also specialise in helping organisations maximise the responsiveness of their services to individuals and families from CALD backgrounds. In addition to training, our Cross-Cultural Consultancy Team can assist with the following consultancy services:

• Helping develop community engagement strategies
• Tailoring materials and services to boost engagement with CALD participants
• Collaboratively working on projects to understand barriers and raise the profile of your service for CALD participants, while building the capacity of your team, so that knowledge and networks remain in your team to support future projects.

Consultancy in Action – NDIS ECEI Building Cultural Responsiveness Project 

The Cross-Cultural Consultancy Team has been engaged by the Brotherhood’s NDIS Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI) program to ensure the service maximises cultural responsiveness and increases the participation of children and families from CALD backgrounds. This enables the service to better reflect the diversity of their local catchment area. We are undertaking community consultations with target CALD communities, community leaders and service providers to so that we can co-design culturally appropriate tools, develop a CALD community engagement plan and conduct training to build the cultural responsiveness of ECEI staff.

Contact us

To find out more, to book your Cross-Cultural Responsiveness Training or make enquiries about consultancy opportunities, contact:

Brett Patterson
Cross-Cultural Consultancy Coordinator
Phone: (03) 9422 5641
Email: xcrt(at)bsl.org.au

Or to make inquiries about consultancy opportunities and/or seek proposals for a tailored training package, please contact:

Ms Hutch Hussein
Senior Manager, Diversity Unit
Phone: 0438 507 103
Email: hutchhussein(at)bsl.org.au