RESP Agency Networking Event
The Refugee Education Support Program (RESP) is a whole-of-school and community approach to create better educational and wellbeing outcomes for students from refugee backgrounds.
RESP is a program aimed at assisting schools to identify and implement strategies which have a positive impact on the achievement, engagement, and wellbeing outcomes of students from refugee backgrounds and their families. RESP is provided to schools as a two-year program. The current round is underway and runs from 2024 to 2025. Additionally, in 2025, a pilot 1-year program called RESP Accelerate, will be offered to select schools. The next two-year program will commence in 2026.
As part of RESP, the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) supports schools in developing community partnerships and delivering pilot projects that align with their identified needs and goals. Local and state-wide organisations play a significant role in RESP, providing resources and specialist expertise to support projects such as homework clubs, wellbeing support, family engagement sessions, and programs incorporating sports, arts, and other creative activities.
On Tuesday 21 May 2024, the RESP team held their first Agency Networking Event, inviting community agencies and organisations to attend for a chance to learn more about the RESP program, share their own work and meet with other agencies. The purpose of the event was to network, share information and connect for future collaboration in projects with schools.
In attendance were organisations such as Western Bulldogs, Monash Health, Ardoch, Sattelite Foundation, 100 Story Building, Southern Migrant Refugee Centre and Reclink, bringing a broad range of expertise, focus areas and possibilities for cross cultural collaborations.
Attendees had the opportunity to speak and network for the afternoon, with the event situated along the Docklands harbour. This event was the first of its kind, with positive feedback received from attendees. The RESP team hopes to hold more events in the future.
