Reducing Racism is a new project that engages Victoria’s African and Muslim communities to help them understand their rights and how to exercise them and make it easier for them to report racism.
- Racism is a significant issue.
- There are barriers preventing people from connecting with us.
- People don’t know enough about their rights and how to find help.
These issues are also highlighted in our Multicultural and Multifaith Engagement Action Plan and the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s Anti-Racism Action Plan.
The Reducing Racism project – which aligns with the Commission’s strategic priority of ‘reducing racism’ – combines education sessions, a community reporting tool and a suite of videos featuring young African Victorians.
Co-designing education programs and new resources
In collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Commemorative Day Committee, we designed a train the trainer’s program that helped ten young African Victorian graduate as African Ambassadors enabling them to be advocates for their communities.
Collaborative community partnerships
In 2019, we developed strong partnerships with
- Australian Intercultural Society
- Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights (AMWCHR)
- Ethnic Community Council Victoria (ECCV)
- Islamic Council Victoria (ICV)
- Nelson Mandela Commemorative Day Committee
- Victorian Arab Social Services
Partnerships with local government and the community reporting tool
In the last five months, we have worked closely with the City of Darebin, the City of Yarra and the City of Whittlesea, running a mix of community consultations and information sessions that aim to empower vulnerable communities experiencing racism, religious discrimination, and racial and religious vilification, to understand their rights under the law, and to exercise them.
We also worked alongside the Victorian Local Government Multicultural Issues Network (VLGMIN) to promote the pilot of a new community reporting tool that make it easier for culturally and linguistically diverse groups – particularly members of African and Muslim communities – to make complaints about racism and discrimination.
Preview the community reporting tool
We encourage you to speak out and make a report through this tool if you or someone you know is confronted with racism or discrimination of any kind.
Go here to preview the Community Reporting Tool
The ‘Close Up’ videos
The ‘Close Up’ videos are the personal stories of Titan, Barry and Mawa – three young African Victorians, two of whom are Muslim. They each describe their experiences of racism, the impact these have had on them and their vision for a more inclusive Australia.
Next steps
Data collected from this project will inform and help direct the ongoing work under our Multicultural and Multifaith Engagement Action Plan.
