2022 DCJ Inaugural Multicultural Community Engagement Conference

The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) hosted our first inaugural Multicultural Community Engagement Conference: Filling in the puzzle: The bigger picture of engagement on Thursday, 27 October 2022 at PARKROYAL Parramatta, 30 Phillip Street, Parramatta New South Wales.

DCJ aims to support and build capacity across the public and private sector when engaging with our multicultural communities. Our conference was designed to focus on best practice and take on the learnings and experiences from the major life changing events including the COVID-19 pandemic, bushfires and flooding that have recently taken place, and the role service providers’ play when supporting multicultural communities.

The conference held on 27 October offered an opportunity to connect, collaborate and communicate best practices for engaging with multicultural communities, with the following objectives in mind:

• Support and build capacity across the public and private sector when engaging with multicultural communities; 
• Improve understanding on the importance of community engagement and risks of not engaging with diverse communities;
• Increase awareness on best practice when working and engaging with multicultural communities; 
• Identify and address existing and potential barriers between services and multicultural communities; 
• Create a platform for government and non-government sectors to come together to both learn and teach, to improve how we work with diverse communities.

The conference was a successful and memorable event, attracting over 450 attendees from Government agencies, Community organisations, regional organisations, Industry personnel, Universities, and religious and community leaders. Conference attendees could also select from 43 different presentations that explored different topics and were aligned to one of the four conference themes. Selected participating organisations also showcased their services through stalls and poster presentations on the day. 

We thank all of our 450+ conference attendees for making the event a truly memorable experience. The conference highlighted the importance of community engagement and reinforced the strength of cross collaboration between the community, public and private sectors when engaging multicultural communities.

Event materials and recordings of the day can be accessed by clicking the tiles at the top of the page.

The conference explored the following four key themes that encompass multicultural community engagement:

• Identifying best practice for authentic engagement
• Developing effective communication and collaboration strategies
• Responding to the issues facing various multicultural communities
• Enhancing capacity building and cooperation within the sector

Each of the four themes were pieced together throughout the day to establish an integrated and holistic approach to Multicultural Community Engagement.

For more information, please contact:
The Multicultural Policy & Engagement team
02 8688 6655 
multiculturalengagement@justice.nsw.gov.au

For more information, please contact:
The Multicultural Policy & Engagement team on 02 8688 6655 or alternatively
multiculturalengagement@justice.nsw.gov.au