In 1990, the Ethnic Youth Issues Network released the first comprehensive framework for the delivery of services in a multicultural society within a social justice framework. ‘Young people, social justice and multiculturalism’ drew on the growing expertise of EYIN and was the first resource of its kind developed in Australia. As such, demand for the report and accompanying training program extended beyond Victoria to other states.
1990s
Young People, Social Justice and Multiculturalism
1990
EYIN releases a ground breaking resource
1990
EYIN releases a ground breaking resource - ‘Young People, Social Justice and Multiculturalism.’
Soo Lin Quek, Lieu Thuy Luong, Alison Paterson and Carmel Guerra, YACVic Annual Report (1991)
1990
Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese young people
1990
Shining a spotlight on homelessness amongst Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese young people and works with communities to develop service responses.
Through a community development approach, in 1990, EYIN produced innovative research and programs responding to the issue of homelessness amongst young people of Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese background. It resulted in the landmark publication, ‘I Just Move Around and Around’, EYIN’s first advocacy policy report. The report broadened the public’s understanding of youth homelessness and highlighted that it was a reality for young people of diverse cultural backgrounds. It also led EYIN to develop resources and build capacity in services and establish two new youth homelessness services tailored to the needs of young people of Cambodian, Lao or Vietnamese background which were handed over to those communities to then manage.
"The title of the report 'I just move around and around' was a quote from a young person describing their experience of transience or ‘couch surfing’ without stable accommodation…"
I Just Move Around and Around, Report Cover
1992
Inclusive health promotion programs
1992
Developing inclusive health promotion programs with South East Asian young men about HIV/AIDS and intravenous drug taking.
Now with a strong understanding of the barriers that vulnerable Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese young people had faced in accessing mainstream support services, EYIN development a new peer education project during 1992 and 1993, targeting South East Asian young men with information about HIV/AIDS and intravenous drug taking to build awareness and capacity amongst their social networks. The project also put forth recommendations to improve the accessibility and cultural appropriateness of health and support services.
‘Mainstream services need to tap into the peer networks within South East Asian gay communities… Many of these men would not approach gay specific services..’
Stephen Wilson, author of the 1993 report Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Sexually transmitted Diseases (STDS) Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese Young People Peer Education Project. A Report by the Ethnic Youth Issues Network.
1993
Challenging racism
1993
Working with young people and youth service providers to understand and challenge racism.
In the early 1990s, EYIN worked to elevate young people’s perspectives into the realm of public debate and government decision-making processes in responding to racism, releasing a new report that gave voice to young people’s experiences. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission reached out to EYIN, requesting it act as the Victorian coordination point for the 1993 ‘Different Colours One People’ national public education campaign launched by the Commission in response to a rise in racist violence in the community.
Campaign material from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Different Colours One People campaign
“Well it’s not just the name calling, it’s also how people isolate each other, creating the situation where you’re over there and we’re over here.”
Quote from young person from Kensington, Young People and Racism report.
1993
Education, training and employment
1993
Pioneering new approaches to assist newly arrived young people’s transitions into education or work.
1993 saw the start of the organisations long-standing commitment to working directly with refugee and newly arrived young people to support their participation in education, training and employment when EYIN engaged in an innovative partnership with two English Language Schools to develop a program based in the schools to support young people’s transition to school or work. In 1993, EYIN also released a research paper highlighting the specific challenges and barriers experienced by refugee young women in finding employment, developed in partnership with Footscray Youth Housing.
1994
Given a Chance
1994
EYIN produces the ‘Given a Chance’ video training manual featuring young people’s stories of the refugee experience.
To develop awareness amongst workers with young people, as well as the community broadly, EYIN developed a video training manual featuring 5 short films about the life experiences of individual refugee young people, exploring why they left their homelands, their journey to Australia and settlement challenges. EYIN’s growing reputation meant that they were approached by Albert Street Productions to make these films, which were launched through a screening at the Victorian State Theatre in 1994. The project gave visibility to the lives of refugee young people in Melbourne and in courageously sharing their stories, the young people created an invaluable consciousness raising tool.
Cover of Given a Chance Resource (1994) by Ethnic Youth Issues Network
1994
Building the capacity of services
1994
EYIN coordinates community-based support for refugee young people and builds understanding and capacity amongst services
As migration patterns to Victoria changed over time, the Ethnic Youth Issues Network responded to the emerging needs of newly arrived communities and built the capacity of services to work effectively with these young people. By the mid 1990s, a significant number of young people were settling in Victoria from Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and the Horn of Africa through the humanitarian migration program. EYIN hosted forums with these young people and community members and developed resources to support culturally informed practice. In 1994 EYIN was funded by the federal government to ‘co-ordinate community-based support structures for refugee young people, act as a referral and information point, conduct research and develop resources for the youth and multicultural sectors.’1 This marked the beginning of the delivery of youth specific settlement support programs. EYIN also worked in a close and targeted way with local governments to develop culturally responsive youth services.
Corlett, D. (1999) Youth people who are Asylum Seekers: A Guide for Workers. Ethnic Youth Issues Network, Fitzroy.
Ward, S. & Beattie, A. (1997) The Horn of Africa: Background information for workers with young people. Ethnic Youth Issues Network, Fitzroy.
1 Centre for Multicultural Youth (2008), Many voices, one story: A history of the Centre for Multicultural Youth 1988 – 2008 Celebrating 20 years working with multicultural young people in Victoria. Centre for Multicultural youth, Carlton. p.17.
1994
Advocating at the national level
1994
Advocating at the national level
As the only multicultural youth organisation of its kind in Australia, EYIN’s reach grew nationally from the early to mid 1990s. EYIN had an increasing role as an advocate for culturally diverse young people to national bodies and on settlement issues to the Federal Government. In hosting the first National Forum on Refugee Young People in 1993, providing formal advice at the federal level on policy issues and addressing national forums on youth justice issues and housing issues, EYIN was influencing policy and practice at a national level.
1995
Building statewide network
Workers with young people attending a networking and capacity building event
1995
EYIN expands its reach to build the capacity of workers with young people across the state.
From its inception, EYIN had a strong focus on developing capacity within the youth and multicultural service sectors to improve outcomes for young people. A key way in which EYIN did this was through hosting a professional network of workers concerned to improve outcomes for ‘ethnic’ young people. From 1993, EYIN consciously expand its reach into the regions to strengthen links with rural communities and by 1995, EYIN was hosting statewide network meetings, bringing together workers with young people from both ‘mainstream’ and ethno-specific’ services. These forums provided regular opportunities for information exchange and resourcing of workers to strengthen their capacity to work with culturally diverse young people.
1996
Direct service delivery
1996
Embarking upon direct service delivery for the first time.
EYIN’s work supporting young people within English Language schools was the precursor of what would become the Refugee Job Placement and Employment Training Program, or JPET, which would be funded from 1996 enabling its expansion to three English Language Schools, and which the organisation would run for a further 13 years. While the core focus of the organisation was on advocacy and sector development, this conscious decision to expand into direct service where there was an existing service gap was made to enable EYIN to gain direct insight into experiences of ‘on the ground’ service providers, which in turn strengthened their capacity to be effective advocates.
Image from the 'Sport Creating a Level Playing Field' report (1996), Ethnic Youth Issues Network and Sport & Recreation Victoria.
1996
Access to sport
1996
Increasing culturally diverse young people’s access to sport
EYIN was funded in 1996 by Sport and Recreation Victoria to develop a program to address the dramatic underrepresentation of young people of non-English speaking background in sporting activities. The success of the Ethnic Youth Sports Development Program made clear the value of sport to increase young people’s social connectedness, wellbeing and to support their settlement in a new community. Sports programs would remain a key feature of EYIN, and later CMY’s activities into the future.
1998
understanding the education system
1998
Promoting understanding of the education system amongst newly arrived young people
Aware that for newly arrived young people, navigating a new education system can be both confusing and daunting, EYIN developed ‘Understanding the Victorian education and training system: a guide for newly arrived young people’ in 1998. This was the first guide of its kind in Victoria and was produced in eleven languages, ensuring the resource was widely accessed by young people, their families, schools and youth service providers.
EYIN (1988) 'EYIN scores a Victorian first with new guide’ Network News, Vol 10, No. 4. Ethnic Youth Issues Network, Fitzroy
1998
Celebrating 10 years
Faces of Young Australia project. Photographer: James Bryans
Faces of Young Australia project. Photographer: James Bryans
Faces of Young Australia project. Photographer: James Bryans
Faces of Young Australia project. Photographer: James Bryans
1998
Celebrating 10 years with the ‘Faces of Young Australia’ photo project
The tenth anniversary of the Ethnic Youth Issues Network in 1998 was celebrated with the photographic exhibition at the Immigration Museum ‘Faces of Young Australia’. The exhibition sought to reflect the diversity of young Australians, a quarter of whom were born overseas or had parents who were born overseas. Depicting young people in their everyday lives, the photographs sought to make visible young people who were both under-represented and often misrepresented in mainstream media.
1999
challenging myths
1999
Challenging misconceptions and developing the evidence base
Challenging misconceptions and developing evidence-based research to underpin policy and program development has been a core focus of the work of the Ethnic Youth Issues Network, and continues to be a central focus of CMY today.
In the mid 1990s, notions of “ethnic youth gangs” featured prominently in media.1 EYIN Coodinator Carmel Guerra partnered with Rob White from Melbourne University to co-edit the first book exploring issues of relevance to ethnic minority young people in Australia – ‘Ethnic Minority Youth in Australia: Challenges and Myths’, released in 1995. Carmel would team up with Rob White again in 1999, along with Santina Perrone, Steven Francis and Rosario Lampugnani, to develop the ‘Ethnic Gangs in Australia: do they exist?’ report for the Australian Multicultural Foundation. The research, another ‘first’ in the Australian content, was developed in response to concerns that there was a lack of empirical evidence on the issue of ‘ethnic youth gangs’, which had been a feature of media reporting and public discussion since the early 1990s.
EYIN (1999) ‘Ethnic Youth Gangs in Australia: do they exist? Network News, Vol 11, No. 4. Ethnic Youth Issues Network, Carlton.
1 Centre for Multicultural Youth (2008), Many voices, one story: A history of the Centre for Multicultural Youth 1988 – 2008 Celebrating 20 years working with multicultural young people in Victoria. Centre for Multicultural youth, Carlton. pp 23-24.
Image credit: EYIN (1999) ‘Ethnic Youth Gangs in Australia: do they exist? Network News, Vol 11, No. 4. Ethnic Youth Issues Network, Carlton.
1999
A new home
1999
A new home at the Australian Multicultural Foundation
In 1999, EYIN re-secured state government funding. The same year, it’s auspice body the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVic) was not funded unfortunately. After eleven years of operating with the invaluable support of YACVic, 1999 called for EYIN to move into a new auspice arrangement with the Australian Multicultural Foundation, a long-standing supporter of EYIN. The strong reputation and relationships EYIN had built within the youth sector would continue to be a feature of its work into the future, while it settled into a new home at the Australian Multicultural Foundation.
Carmel Guerra and Dr Bulent (Hass) Dellal AO, Executive Director of the Australian Multicultural Foundation.
