Community Action Training – Melbourne
The Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum and the Uniting Church of Australia Justice & International Mission are jointly offering local church and community groups an opportunity come together and build skills for action around refugee issues in Australia.
Throughout May and June we will offer two types of training to enable groups to go back to their communities and take action. We will offer training to host Community Conversations and to meet local MPs.
These training have been designed to support the launch of an action toolkit by CAPSA. You will be offered a hardcopy of this toolkit at any of the trainings, or you can download a pdf: https://capsa.org.au/engage-hearts-minds-toolkit-refugee-action/
Community Conversations
Community conversations are a great way for people to learn about the issues affecting people seeking asylum, and to join the discussion about how we can be treating people with dignity and respect. We believe that when a community is made aware of an issue and works together in defence of what is fair and right, anything is possible.
We’ll present a model for having conversations in your local community and give you the tools and structures to organise your own.Training Dates
Wednesday 24th May – 6pm-7.30pm
Sunday 4th June – 2pm-3.30pm
Meeting your local MP
MPs are our elected representatives in parliament and have a responsibility to listen to the issues that are of concern to their constituents. In this session we will work through some of the key things to think about when arranging, preparing for and following up your meeting with an MP.
We’ll build your skills to have effective meetings with MPs that are outcome-focused and help us achieve important change for refugees and people seeking asylum.
For our Wednesday 31st May training we will be joined by former ALP candidate for Melbourne – Cath Bowtell – who has years of experience working with government departments, unions and elected officials and is currently CEO of Industry Fund Services.
For both MP sessions, we will be joined by Catherine Neville, who has held senior policy and advocacy roles in government and the community services sector and worked as an advisor and Chief of Staff for the Bracks, Brumby and Andrews Labor Governments in Victoria.Training Dates
Wednesday 31st May – 6pm-7.30pm
Sunday 4th June – 4pm-5.30pm
Location
All workshops take place at the Cathedral Room, Cardinal Knox Centre, 383 Albert St, East Melbourne VIC 3002.