Workforce inclusivity and women's empowerment programs video

[Anita Veivers – Centacare Far North Queensland]

Centacare FNQ provides a variety of employment and training pathways to refugees and migrants in our region, through our employment hub. Our hub offers a variety of different programs, and we are currently supporting people from over 30 different CALD backgrounds.

So we are really proud at Centacare Far North Queensland, that we were national finalists in the Settlement and Migration Awards in 2021 for our Women's Empowerment Program. It was an absolute thrill for us to be recognised. And the work we do is very much around building resilience and supporting women to participate both economically and socially in our community.

One of the key barriers is language. So really supporting women with opportunity to have conversation, to really learn and be comfortable conversing with people in a variety of settings, is one of the key things. Being a remote area or regional area, we do have transport barriers and that can be a problem for people at times. Support to get appropriate childcare close to home or on transport routes for employment is another area. But we do work very closely with our local organizations to make sure that we make that as easy as possible.

Currently every week, Centacare provides women's empowerment programs to over 100 girls and women aged from the very early years through to 90. And this is across a range of areas in wellbeing. So, conversational English, workplace English, primary school and high school programs, employment programs, and a variety of topic specific programs either at the request of clients or depending on what's happening in our local community.

Over the last 18 months, we've supported over 100 women and girls aged 15 and over into employment pathways and a whole range of industries including construction, healthcare, childcare, retail, agriculture.

When people come back to us and talk to us about the impact that that's had on their family, by them becoming wage earners and being able to support their family and also to show their own children and their own young girls that having a valued role in society as a working woman is recognized and important in Australia. That's really exciting for us.