Ethnic Myanmar Communities
The Ethnic Myanmar Communities Co-Design Consultation, facilitated by ASeTTS in partnership with the Siyin Chin Community WA, brought together 21 community members to identify key challenges and priorities for future support. Participants, primarily from Siyin Chin, Dai Chin, and Karen backgrounds, highlighted pressing issues including language barriers, limited access to employment and education, intergenerational conflict, and social isolation among seniors.
Findings revealed that settlement-related challenges – particularly language and employment – were deeply interconnected and compounded by cultural transitions and limited-service awareness. Participants proposed culturally responsive solutions such as speaking clubs, lawful parenting education through collaboration with religious leaders, and home-based learning for seniors.
Congolese Community
The Congolese Co-Design Consultation, facilitated by ASeTTS in collaboration with the Congolese Community of Western Australia (COCOWA), brought together 17 participants to identify key challenges and priorities for community development. The forum explored six themes: health and wellbeing, settlement, children and young people, equality, safety, and community unity. Participants highlighted barriers to accessing community support, language and system adaptation challenges, difficulties in accessing health services, intergenerational conflict, and social isolation as priority issues.
The consultation revealed that language barriers, trust issues, cultural differences, and lack of awareness of services were common causes across all five priority areas. Participants also identified shared consequences such as mental health challenges, loss of cultural identity, and increased social isolation. Recommendations included establishing community-led social groups, improving access to community associations, fostering intergenerational dialogue, enhancing digital literacy, and collaborating with other agencies to address broader settlement needs.
Palestinian Community
The Palestinian Community Co-Design Consultation, held in partnership between ASeTTS and the Palestinian Community Association of WA (PCWA), engaged 45 participants across two forums in August and September 2024. The sessions provided a culturally safe space for Palestinian community members – many recently displaced by the conflict in Gaza – to identify key challenges and propose solutions. Priority issues included youth disconnection from cultural identity, mental health and trauma, community fragmentation, limited access to education and career development, and experiences of racism and cultural suppression. Recommendations focused on enhancing trauma-informed mental health support, promoting intergenerational resilience, strengthening cultural identity, and improving access to settlement services and youth mentorship programs.
