Manager’s Report Year 2022

Ethnic Council Manager’s Report for Year 2022

The year just passed has been successful despite the ongoing impact of Covid which forced us to maintain a hybrid model of staff working remotely for extended periods and also maintaining an office presence. Financially we are well placed with as we are reporting a substantial surplus and a sound grants position which provides security for staff and a solid forward planning position. The balance sheet can be misleading in that Government has increasingly tended to fund large grant amounts in advance at the end of the financial year. This no doubt helps their budget position but places pressure on us to manage cash flow to avoid a boom or bust situation.

Our income continues to grow through successful grants applications and the close working relationship with government agencies which has led to direct offers of funding to undertake specific projects. No doubt our response to provide quality service delivery during Covid has enhanced our reputation as evidenced by increased and specific funding that encourages partnerships both formal and informal.

In summary our grants position is as follows:

• Settlement Services Program funded through the Federal Department of Home Affairs will continue until end June 2024.
• Regional Strategic Partnership Program funded through the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship. In February 2018, the Department supplemented the existing funding to create a Strategic Partnership Coordinators position to operate across the Goulburn Region. This funding was extended as a Covid response until September 2021 and was then further extended until June 2022. This funding has again been extended until August 2023.
• Social Cohesion Program funded through the Department of Education and has been extended several times and will be finalised by the end of 2022 however a new initiative is being negotiated for the funding to continue through 2023.
• Family Violence Pilot Program was a new state government initiative offered to the Ethnic Council to develop strategies to prevent Domestic Violence in multicultural communities. This program was for two years until September 2020 however the core program was able to continue until December 2020 and a Covid initiative provided funding until December 2021. A replacement Family Violence Program called Safer and Stronger Communities has been funded to continue through 2022 and into 2023.
• Following our successful delivery of a range of Covid funding programs such as the Working for Victoria Program, Covid Seniors and Covid Safe we were approached by the Victorian Health Department to enter into a funding agreement to deliver health messaging for 12 months in partnership with the Local Public Health Unit.
• Connecting Employment Connectors is a state government initiative to facilitate employment for multicultural communities and funding enabled the employment of three bilingual workers for 12 months and the program has been extended to August 2023.
• Cultural Competency Training is a state government funded program which will enable us to deliver cultural awareness sessions focusing on multicultural and indigenous communities. A range of training and cultural awareness programs have been delivered to regional organisations.
• The Regional Vaccination Hub managed by Goulburn Valley Health at the Showgrounds with a combination of Greater Shepparton Council, GV Health and Ethnic Council staff. We employed bilingual workers to assist in customer service and by agreement we supplied three people per day and the wages were reimbursed by GV Health. The partnership ceased with the closure of the Regional Hub however the model for engagement has been recognised and now implemented in other places.
• Informed Consent is a program we have been invited to participate in a as response to changes to Victorian Consent Laws. Funding will be over two years and the target cohort is multicultural young people aged 15 to 25 years.
• Disability Self Help is funded by the Victoria Government over two years and is designed to build self-advocacy capacity amongst people from multicultural communities with a disability.
• Youth Programs. We have grants funding from the Victorian Multicultural Commission to support a youth consultation process and additional funding to support a cultural event at Greater Shepparton Secondary College.
• Covid will continue to impact our service delivery and the capacity of communities to re-establish their community, faith, and cultural activities. Funding through the Partners for Change and Strategic Partnership programs are being used to facilitate community activities that can involve health messaging and social cohesion.

Reopening the office required a major reshuffle of the desk layout to ensure we comply with all Covid requirements which unfortunately meant we lost capacity for meeting or training space. This will not change soon, and we will continue to use external sites for a variety of purposes and significantly we have reached a flexible agreement for the ongoing use of the Masonic Hall. Covid has also provided new opportunities and we are now directly involved in forums convened by FECCA and ECCV which gives access to agencies across the sector. One initiative has been the creation of a Multicultural CEOs network and all these forums have brought the sector closer together and the people we only saw at conferences we now meet with on a regular basis. This is a significant development because for the first time we have a viable network with the capacity to provide mutual support, opportunities for funding partnerships and a meaningful voice into our peak bodies.

The Board continues to focus attention on financial management and at each meeting receives a detailed report containing Profit and Loss, Budget to Actual comparison, Balance Sheet, Cash flow Spreadsheet, Transaction Summary and copies of Bank Statements. This information provides the Board with appropriate data to make decisions and to effectively monitor the operation of individual grant areas and the broader organisation.

Despite the difficulties of the past year, we have grown and developed our services meeting every funding bodies milestones for quantitative and qualitative measure.

Covid will continue to influence our activities and we will need to be proactive to ensure we are meeting community needs and can support the various health initiatives from the State and Federal Governments.

Staff and I are confidently looking forward to another successful year working as a team with Board, members, funders, and clients to grow and develop our programs and services.