Community Leadership Development and Mentoring Project
NIRWA Mentoring Project
From January to May, 2009 NIRWA ran a national Mentoring Program to develop and strengthen the advocacy voice of young immigrant and refugee women in Australia. The program was open for any overseas or Australian-born young woman (30 years of age and under) with a linguistic and/or cultural background other than Anglo-Australian, and who wished to be identified as such.
The NIRWA Mentoring Program selected 8 young women to participate in the program. Two were selected from Western Australia, two from the Australian Capital Territory and four from other States and Territories. The eight young women were expected to participate in a Leadership Workshop in Perth on the 12th of December, 2008.
Following the workshop, the mentees were supported to participate in a range of exciting policy and leadership projects in Australia. These included Leadership in the NIRWA project, the YWCA project on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the organization of a Women's Conference by the Women's Sub-Committee of the Ethnic Community Council of WA, and participation in the WomenSpeak Face2Face Meeting.
The mentees worked with female mentors from all over Australia, who guided them through the process and provided them with the appropriate supervision and support. The mentors assigned for this program were women with a long history of working with human rights, women's issues and multicultural issues.
The goal of the program was to provide opportunities for young immigrant and refugee women to develop their leadership skills and knowledge and become active members of their community.
NIRWA also held two additional workshops in 2009, the first a workshop in Sydney which focussed on the issues of housing and homelessness, and the second a workshop in Berri, SA which foucussed on Training and Education.
