Speaking Event or Forum

Hosting a speaking event or forum at your school can be a great way to engage students and the school community in thinking critically about how we treat people seeking asylum. We recommend you engage someone who has lived experience seeking asylum to come and talk to your students.

One of the biggest challenges in promoting compassion and humanity in Australia’s refugee policy, is the considerable misinformation that exists in the public discourse about refugees and people seeking asylum. Inviting a range of speakers to come to your school can help promote a more positive understanding of what it means to be seek asylum. There are a number of speakers programs around the country that allow you to raise awareness in your school community about the experience of refugees and people seeking asylum. Alternatively if your school community has connections to people who have lived experience seeking asylum you may want to invite them to speak. Our firm belief is that those speaking about their experience deserve to be paid for their time and energy. Please consider this when arranging any event.

Speaking Programs

• Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Schools Program – Melbourne metro
• Jesuit Social Services ‘Just Voices’ Program – Melbourne based
• Jesuit Refugee Service Voices Program – Sydney metro
• Refugee Council of Australia Face to Face Schools Program – Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong
• Red Cross of Australia ‘In Search of Safety’ Schools program – Red Cross Primary Schools: available nationally. Red Cross Secondary Schools – ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, WA

Planning Your Event

We recommend you combine inviting a speaker to your school with other activities to allow students an opportunity to put into practice what they’ve learned. Your day could involve:

• Running a range of educational resources including activities before and after hearing from someone (links below).
  
• Taking a large school photo with a message of support for people seeking asylum after the talk – to send to CAPSA and your local MP.
  
• Giving students the option to write letters to their local MP about the issue (link below).
  Show a film focusing on these issues after the talk.
  Inviting students to share personal stories of visiting detention, volunteering, sharing their own migrant/refugee experience etc.

Free resources you can use

Here are a range of educational resources you can use:

• Walking with – classroom activity
• Where do you stand? – classroom activity
• What would you do? Secondary classroom activity
• Where does this story take you? Secondary classroom activity
  

You can find some tips for writing to your local MP here
You can find a list of films that you can show at your school

There are a range of other education resources and videos you can find:

• Caritas – Refugee Simulation
• Oxfam Refugee Realities animation
• Oxfam Education Kit
• Passages – UNHCR – awareness game

Some school speaking events and large school photos of support