Training kits

  • Training kit: From horror to hope: addressing domestic violence in resettled refugee communities

    Designed for: This training kit is designed for community and government workers who come into contact with refugee families resettled in Australia, who are either experiencing or at risk of experiencing, domestic and family violence.

    Overview: The kit will assist workers to understand the complexity of the refugee experience, and the ways in which this can make families vulnerable to domestic violence. The kit contains an introduction, 8 individual sessions and additional background materials, Powerpoint presentations for each session, videos, and handouts. Sessions 1 and 2 examine some of the many issues and experiences that refugees encounter during their journey, the experiences of refugees as they often struggle to settle into their new life, and the special needs of refugee women. These sections are based on the reported stories of refugees themselves. It is crucial information for anyone working with refugee communities. Session 3 examines what resettlement means for refugees, while Session 4 explores what we mean when we talk about domestic and family violence, and the impact of this on women and children. In Session 5, we bring together our knowledge and understanding of the refugee experience with our understanding of domestic violence, and explore what this means for refugee families resettling in Australia who are experiencing this form of violence. Sessions 6–8 look at ways in which we can work with and assist refugee families to identify solutions and to develop new ways of coping with domestic and family violence as they work to rebuild their lives in their adopted new country.

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  • Training kit: Celebration of refugee lives: Stories of strength and resilience

    Designed for: Members of the community

    Overview: This toolkit highlights the inspiring contributions and successes of refugees settling in Australia. The materials are designed as a community education resource to enhance understanding of refugee experiences and to dispel the often damaging myths which impact upon resettling groups. In this toolkit, you will find the inspirational stories of successful refugees living in Australia. These stories challenge and shatter many of the myths circulating about refugee communities. By sharing in the lives and achievements of refugees, we hope to raise awareness about the journey of resettlement and the extraordinary strength and resilience it takes to both survive and succeed in a new country.

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  • Training kit: Human rights training package

    Designed for: Newly-arrived refugee families and training facilitators.

    Overview: Refugees from many different communities have told us about their confusion over human rights in Australia. Instead of rights being seen as something good about life in Australia, some see rights as negative or as a problem for their family. These resources explain some of these rights and what they mean for families. They were produced as part of the ARC Funded Linkage Project – The Meaning of Rights in Refugee Settlement. In this important project, researchers from the UNSW Centre for Refugee Research worked with partner agencies and refugee communities to explore how understandings of human rights influence refugee settlement in Australia and to develop policy and service responses.

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    Videos:

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  • Training kit: Community consultations using reciprocal research methodologies

    Designed for: Individuals and organisations undertaking consultations with diverse communities

    Overview: Reciprocal research describes the process of giving something back to the community in return for their input to the research. After completing this training, participants will be able to confidently undertake effective consultations with diverse communities, focusing on a wide range of community concerns. Participants will be able to identify a number of issues and challenges faced when consulting with communities and will develop strategies to implement positive changes in response to these.

    Participants will develop the skills to ensure meaningful consultation with communities, with measurable outcomes. The program will provide participants with:

    • an understanding of and practice in using a human rights framework
    • the tools and knowledge to run reciprocal research community consultations
    • ability to identify challenges to meaningful consultation and community participation
    • the opportunity to use the skills needed to run effective community consultations in a safe environment
    • the opportunity for participants to adapt training materials to suit the needs of the groups with whom they work, and
    • the knowledge and skills for working with informal (untrained) interpreters, and multiple language groups.

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  • Training kit: Surviving war, surviving peace

    Designed for: People working with refugee children who have survived torture and trauma, such as teachers, counsellors, and service providers.

    Overview: The training kit provides information about the refugee experience and the sorts of trauma refugee students are likely to have suffered. It enables teachers and counsellors to understand the high risk of poor mental health in refugee children and to identify reactions to trauma, including post-traumatic stress symptoms. It helps to explain the difficulties that refugee students may have in settling into the school environment. The training also focuses on helping refugee students recover from their experiences through appropriate early intervention strategies that aim to holistically support the students and their families in the resettlement process.

    Refugee children and young people, their parents, teachers and counsellors, were involved at all stages of the planning and production of these materials. The video was their original idea. They produced the four graphics for the brochures, piloted and commented on the text, and helped to decide the content and presentation of the video. This kit was generously sponsored by the Ian Potter Foundation.

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    Training sessions:

    Background reading:

  • Training kit: UNHCR Extended Dialogue Methodology

    Designed for: UNHCR staff and partners in field situations

    Overview: The UNHCR Extended Dialogue Methodology was developed from the Centre for Refugee Research’s Reciprocal Research Methodology. These resources are intended as additional resources to the UNHCR Extended Dialogue Methodology guide.

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  • Training kit: "An Introduction to Intersectionality, Age Gender and Diversity. Making it work for you in situations of forced displacement and statelessness produced by  UNSW and UNHCR

    Designed for: All stakeholders working with refugees, forcibly displaced and stateless persons, including refugee-led organisations, UNHCR staff, service providers and volunteers.

    Overview: This one-day training session was developed as part of a suite of training materials which are a key output of an Australian Government Funded research project, Refugee Women and Girls, Key to the Global Compact on Refugees. The purpose of this Training Kit is to introduce and explain the concepts of ‘Intersectionality’ and the UNHCR ‘Age, Gender and Diversity’ (AGD) framework and policy

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    There are three parts in the training package:

    The AGD Matrix Tool Website also provides information and material.