OUR APPROACH
HOST International exists to make life better for people on the move as they seek a new home or settle in a new community. We believe that for this to occur communities need to be inclusive and support the conditions for individuals to achieve a reasonable quality of life that is free from harm and discrimination.
Overall our work is underpinned by our core values of innovation, compassion, diversity, integrity and respect as well as our principles of humanity, hope and dignity.
Our theory of change focusses on 3 core areas:
Individual Wellbeing
We work with individuals to promote wellbeing and self agency through community based case interventions. We have developed a specialised and evidence informed approach that seeks to empower individuals to respond proactively to displacement challenges by developing practical coping strategies and providing support to manage daily stressors.
We believe that people can overcome adversity with the right support and attitude and that organisations should focus on delivering support, tools and resources that empower self-reliance and focus on future opportunities.
Our work with individuals primarily focuses on individual wellbeing and sustainable community based protection and integration into host communities whether temporary or permanent. We measure this work through an impact framework that measures indicators across domains of physical, social, cultural, psychological and economic integration.
Our work with individuals is currently targeted towards:
-
Community based protection strategies including child protection and alternatives to immigration detention; and
-
Coaching and education programs aimed at improving economic inclusion
community inclusion
We seek to create thriving and harmonious communities by working to create the conditions by which people affected by displacement can be integrated and valued. We believe that effective integration and self-reliance of individuals is not possible without a whole of community approach that recognises the needs of both newcomers and established communities.
Our work with communities focuses on partnerships and co-design to ensure that we value local knowledge and experiences and ensure that our work is relevant and has maximum impact. We also draw upon coaching models of practice that seek to facilitate, guide and mentor communities and individuals towards independent action.
Some examples of our community inclusion work include:
-
Newcomers Community Incubator in Adelaide supporting communities to mobilise around the needs of newcomers
-
Community garden in Bangkok working on food security for Thai and refugee residents
-
Developing child protection capacity with Rohingya in Kuala Lumpur
systemic change
We believe that global innovation in refugee protection is needed and that we have a role to play in driving incremental change and representing the voices of people on the move. HOST was established, in part, out of frustration with the existing limitations in the global protection systems that ultimately disempower the people it aims to protect. The focus has not been on empowering or creating solutions but on crisis humanitarian aid and institutional protection.
New solutions are needed and we believe we can have an impact on this by investing in innovation, by elevating voices of displaced and host communities and by contributing to global and regional solution building.
We are an International NGO with national programs, local partners and a regional vision for the Asia Pacific. We are active members of APRRN, ACFID, and the International Detention Coalition (IDC) and we seek to engage Governments to advance more humane and community based approaches to immigration and border management.
We also believe that research is needed to advance good migration policy and therefore invest in partnerships with research bodies to inform our policy work and the development of our work with individuals and communities.
Some examples of our global and systemic change work are:
-
Research partnership in Indonesia with UNSW seeking to design better support services
-
Refugee Assets research on work rights in Asia with legal partners and Asylum Access
-
Participation in regional and global forums on refugee policy
