Reaching beyond boarders with international collaborations

In 2009, CMY partnered with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to create an opportunity for young people to participate in discussions that sought to develop mutual knowledge about religious traditions. CMY worked with UNESCO to deliver a workshop for young people’s participation in the Parliament of the World’s Religions held in Melbourne in 2009, in which young people met with the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. Through this workshop, young people were able to give advice to UNESCO to support young people’s future participation in interreligious dialogues and actions.

The following year, CMY was drawn upon by the International Organisation for Migration to advise on how the cultural orientation program offered to young refugees before they come to Australia could be strengthened. CMY drew on their significant experience in supporting migrant and refugee young people’s settlement to provide advice on how the program could be updated and re-shaped to best inform and prepare young people before they depart for Australia as humanitarian entrants or refugees.

In 2010, CMY CEO Carmel Guerra was one of three Australian NGO representatives asked to participate in the annual Executive Committee meeting on the UNHCR in Geneva. Carmel drew on CMY’s growing body of knowledge on the needs and experiences of refugee and newly arrived migrant young people and their families to inform discussions about the protection needs of refugee women and unaccompanied minors, amongst other issues related to the protection of refugees’ rights and wellbeing.