Settlement Services International – SSI

SSI is a community organisation and social business that supports newcomers and Australians live their best lives. They work with all people who have experienced vulnerability, including refugees, people seeking asylum and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, to build capacity and enable them to overcome inequality.

The community engagement team engaged Stories for Impact to capture the stories of the people they work with on a daily basis. Many of these people overcome huge obstacles to live a rich experience. Even with an in-house communications team, there is no substitute for the genuine stories that workers with deep personal relationships can capture in the field. Their stories took us into neighborhood gardens, running groups, welcome committees, community kitchens and beyond.

Our FIND and MAKE session was separated by a few weeks for shooting, followed by an EDIT and SHARE session. Digital Storytellers team members were fortunate to go along on some shoots and support the team finalize their edits. The training program was tailored to suit the needs of participants working with incredible human-driven stories, where issues like confidentiality and cultural sensitivity are critical.

These dedicated community engagement professionals were able to capture the heart of the stories of the people they work with. Diana Nguyen crafted a film about the community garden she manages. Marcela Hart created a film about their annual CitytoSurf running team – a courageous group of refugees, volunteers and staff who have been training hard and are excited to do their part for a wonderful cause – raising funds for SSI’s Community Kitchen.

Javier Paul Ortiz, SSI Multicultural Disability Inclusion and Promotion Officer, delivered this story. Acknowledging small businesses as the cornerstones of communities, he takes us to C & M Aquatic Centre Swimming School in Padstow, Sydney. This small business has trained all their instructors on “disability awareness & tailors to individual needs to run inclusive swimming lessons, increasing their ability to cater for diverse group of clients and support their community towards embracing inclusive attitudes. Addressing the barriers so people of all abilities, cultures and backgrounds (CALD) can access their businesses, not only set the foundation for inclusive cohesive communities, but also open themselves up to a larger market.”

The SSI community engagement team empower people to live full lives in challenging circumstance. Their new storytelling capacity will strengthen their ability to celebrate the impact they generate and share these stories to  influence ideas and policy.