“Walking Together”
Executive Summary
The Central Coast Neighbourhood & Community Centre’s Forum (The Forum) recognises the importance of strengthening relationships with Aboriginal people on the Central Coast. As a result, this initiative was funded by the NSW government through a grant from the Area Assistance Scheme, which is administered by the Communities Division, Department of Community Services and also support from the Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs. The Aims of the project embrace the following:
To determine existing barriers to accessing local community organisations by the Aboriginal community;
To foster improved working relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal organisations;
To develop strategies to increase access to mainstream community organisations for the Aboriginal community;
To provide cultural awareness training and information for non-Aboriginal workers within mainstream services;
To promote the advantages of accessing mainstream services to the Aboriginal community.
To enable The Forum to meet the above Aims identified within the Project a Resource Kit which will be known as ‘Walking Together’, proposes a broad framework and Protocol. These protocols will assist non-Aboriginal organisations to work with the Aboriginal community in a culturally sensitive manner and create better understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities.
The Forum recognises the imbalance of Aboriginal organisations on the Central Coast compared to that of non-Aboriginal organisations and the Resource Kit will serve as a tool to improve access by Aboriginal people to non-Aboriginal organisations, whilst respecting their cultural needs.
The three (3) major funded Aboriginal organisations on the Central Coast are located within the Wyong Shire. It is hoped that by raising awareness within non-Aboriginal community service providers, this will increase access by Aboriginal people to relevant Agencies. For additional information regarding Aboriginal programs and services refer to the Central Coast Aboriginal Health’ Nunyara Aboriginal Service Directory’.
In addition to the above, The Forum also recognises the importance of developing strategies to empower the Aboriginal community and increase access to mainstream community organisations and the Resource Kit has provided a framework on how this can be achieved through practical partnerships.
The Resource Kit, which will be known as “Walking Together”, proposes a broad framework and Protocol for helping non-Aboriginal services to promote and strengthen relationships with the Central Coast Aboriginal community.
