Last week the Australian Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, The Hon Alex Hawke MP, announced a new package of support for Afghan evacuees valued at $27.1million over the next two years. The package includes additional funds to facilitate access to mental health, employment coaching, legal aid and direct support for Afghan community organisations.
HOST International is pleased to announce that we will be partnering with the Department of Home Affairs to deliver the employment coaching component of this package to support accelerated employment and education outcomes for members of the Afghan evacuation cohort. CEO, David Keegan, says;
"Many of the cohort have been evacuated very quickly and have been uprooted from jobs and study with little more than the clothes on their backs. Whilst this has been traumatic, they are highly motivated to re-engage in work and study here in Australia and it is a privilege to be able to assist with this."
Whilst details are still being worked out, it is expected that those over the age of 16 and who were working or studying before they left Afghanistan will be eligible to apply to receive support from the program. Support will include career coaching focussed on providing skills, information and resources to enable clients to make informed career decisions and to re-engage with work or study as soon as possible.
Services under this new program will be complementary to existing settlement services across Australia which are designed to support orientation to the local community, connections to services and support to recover from trauma. HOST has been part of these services by providing support to community organisations in Adelaide that play a critical role in welcoming newcomers. We welcome the opportunity to expand our collaboration with settlement services.
As information becomes available we will provide updates on our website. In the meantime interested Afghani evacuees can register their interest here and others can show their support by participating in our special appeal to raise funds for the costs of access to education and vocational certification as well as volunteering to mentor a jobseeker.