The Educational categories available and the amounts awarded are as follows:
* Secondary Education – $1500
* Vocational Education and Training – $3000
* University – $5000
* Skills & Qualification Recognition – $5000

Persecution, war, political instability and displacement are all factors that lead individuals and families to leave their homes to seek permanent protection elsewhere, including Australia. Refugees who come to Australia face many challenges during settlement, such as financial hardship, dealing with experiences of torture and trauma, and family separation.
Australia is a nation built on immigration. We have a long history of providing safe asylum to refugees, many of whom have gone on to make great civil, social and economic contributions to Australian society.
SSI and Allianz aim to continue that tradition by providing targeted scholarships to those who are most in need and willing to overcome social and economic challenges.
In response to the various needs of refugee communities, SSI and Allianz offer scholarships to individuals across a range of education categories, including secondary, vocational education and training, university, and skills qualification and recognition.

Applications for scholarships for the 2023 academic year are now CLOSED. Keep your eyes on this page for when our next round of applications will open and where to apply.

SSI delivers a specialist out-of-home care service that provides a culturally appropriate model of foster care for children and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds aged 0-18 years in NSW, and up to 21 years in Victoria.

Read more FAQs here

SSI’s Multicultural Child and Family Program (MCFP) supports foster children, young people and parents from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD), as well as providing programs for families with an early intervention focus.

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The main qualities that make an effective foster carer are a genuine interest in children and young people and a focus on the child’s best interests. Other strong attributes include:

– empathy and good listening skills
– perseverance when things get tough
– flexibility and adaptability
– patience and humour
– stability and consistency in your personal and family life
– an ability to guide and discipline children without the use of physical punishment
– being able to look after yourself emotionally and staying well
– a willingness to work with other people in the child’s life such as birth parents and caseworkers
– a willingness to support the child to develop a sense of identity that includes their culture, language and religion, where appropriate.

Read more FAQs here

SSI recruits foster carers and provides casework support for children from CALD backgrounds aged 0-18 years in NSW and 0-21 years in VIC.

While SSI has a strong focus on recruiting foster carers from CALD backgrounds, we consider interest from people of any background if they have a genuine desire to provide a safe and caring home for children.
SSI Multicultural Foster Care is staffed by bilingual case workers and managers with cross cultural and out-of-home care casework skills and knowledge.

They work closely with community organisations and community leaders, women’s groups, religious organisations and other relevant services, in the recruitment and support of foster carers.

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In NSW we cover parts of metropolitan Sydney and the Hunter/Central Coast area and in Victoria we cover the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

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Foster carers care for children and young people who can’t live safely with their family. They provide safe and caring homes for these vulnerable children. By providing guidance, support and encouragement, foster carers make a real difference to the lives of children in care. Foster carers are trained, assessed and authorised to provide foster care.

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At SSI, we believe children in care who are supported to learn about and maintain a connection to their culture, religion and language have better outcomes as they grow up than those who are not supported in this way. These connections help children to understand where they have come from and to develop their sense of belonging and identity.

Helping children stay connected with their culture, language and religion can also help if and when children are returned to their birth parents.

¹ Burke, S. and Paxman, M. 2008. Children and young people from non-English speaking backgrounds in out-of-home care in NSW, Centre for Parenting & Research Service System Development Division, NSW Department of Community Services.

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Anyone can apply to become a foster carer as long as they meet the conditions set out below. Applicants must be:
– over 21 years of age
– an Australian citizen or permanent resident
– in good physical and emotional health without any medical condition that may affect their ability to care for a child or young person

SSI recognises that foster carers can have different personal and family circumstances. Foster carers can be:
– single, married or in a de facto relationship
– renting, buying or you may own your home
– working or not working
– a parent or someone who has a strong interest in helping children

Read more FAQs here

If you are interested in becoming a foster carer with SSI please contact us on:
For NSW –
P: 1800 960 976 or 02 8713 9200
E: fostercare@ssi.org.au

For Victoria –
P: 1800 955 774
E: vicfostercare@ssi.org.au

We will arrange a time to come and speak with you and your family about foster care, what it involves, and how to apply.

You will be provided with written information about our service and an application form. Once you have gathered the information you need and you decide you want to proceed, the next step will be to submit the application form to us.

You will then be invited to participate in an assessment process that will help us determine whether you can become a foster carer with our service.

The process includes:
– a safety inspection of your home
– a request for medical and personal references
– checks for Working with Children and criminal records for all adult members of your household
– participation in 2-3 days’ training which can be spread over several weekends and/or weeknights
– assessment interviews with you and members of your household to determine your suitability to be authorised by our service as a foster care

Read more FAQs here

This e-module helps organisations support their workforce to grow the capabilities needed to respond to the unique needs of individuals and communities and provide equitable access to opportunities and services.

Learners will grow their awareness of the multicultural context in Australia, understand their responsibilities to uphold the rights of our diverse communities and explore key frameworks and concepts to build their understanding of what it means to work in culturally respectful and inclusive ways.

This e-module can be customised and uploaded to your organisation’s learning management system.

Culturally responsive practice training is a reflective process that will help participants gain an insight into their own organisational culture, behaviours, and practices to make their services more accessible and avoid creating service-related barriers.

We have customised versions of this workshop for different contexts, including disability, aged home care, refugee support services, child safety and out-of-home care, schools, early childhood and volunteer management. Our team can adjust this workshop to suit most contexts or sectors.

This cultural diversity training workshop assists people leading and working in diverse teams to work more effectively and inclusively.  There are many benefits of a diverse workforce but this can only be realised when we act to build inclusion, grow self-awareness and cultural humility.

Customer service staff are the first point of contact for customers and clients and have significant influence on the organisation’s reputation. This workshop assists customer service staff to communicate effectively, build trust and be responsive to culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

A key reason why Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities do not access services at the same rate as the broader population is that they are often not aware of the services that exist or what their entitlements are. This workshop will look at community engagement as an approach to build capacity with a focus on minimising barriers experienced by CALD communities.

This workshop provides participants with essential skills to work effectively with interpreters to better engage and communicate with diverse communities.

To attract and recruit culturally diverse workers, organisations must look beyond the traditional recruitment channels and consciously adopt targeted and flexible approaches as well as build supportive and inclusive workplaces.

This workshop will assist non-clinical workers to respond to people in a trauma-informed way, minimising retraumatising people and providing services that support recovery.

Supporting positive cultural identity for children and young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds in your care is easier said than done. This course aims to support carers to find more meaningful and practical ways to support a child’s development of a positive cultural identity.

Free, nationally accredited training to help frontline workers recognise the signs of domestic and family violence, and know what to do next. Organised in partnership with Lifeline. Learn more here.

SSI’s student workshops provide learning experiences that transform how students respond to diversity in ways that are fun, thought-provoking, inspire curiosity, and build confidence to engage with cultural diversity.