New program offers Australians an opportunity to change refugees’ lives

Project Eden, a refugee resettlement program launched by Stand Up, with government backing, enables people to help refugees start new lives in Australia. SHARON BERGER reports.

An information night about a new program that enables members of the community to help UNHCR-referred refugees resettle in Australia was held in Sydney on Wednesday night.

The gathering for Project Eden, launched by Jewish advocacy group Stand Up, brought together refugees who had benefited from the program, support members who have helped resettle families, a representative from Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (CRSA) and individuals interested in hearing more about this life-changing opportunity.

The Jewish Independent is supporting Project Eden, which is a community project to help people engage in a federal government program known as CRISP (the Community Refugee Integration & Settlement Pilot), a four-year pilot program launched in mid-2022 and will help resettle 1500 refugees.

If successful, CRISP is expected to be adopted on a wider scale for humanitarian resettlement. Australia’s annual humanitarian intake is 13,750, a small fraction of the tens of millions of refugees worldwide.

This community support model has been very successful in Canada since the late 1970s and has enabled over 325,000 refugees to build new lives there. It is now being adopted in many countries, including Australia.

In 2021, The Jewish Independent Media, Stand Up and B’nai Brith combined to raise $106,500 to help resettle in Canada 10 refugees stranded in Nauru and PNG.

“What makes the CRISP model so impactful is that it gives our volunteers the chance to make a real, tangible difference, whilst also giving new arrivals instant community support in the hopes of relieving isolation,” said Stand Up CEO Courtney Winter-Peters, who introduced the program to the group.