Published: 21 January 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
ANNE SUSSKIND talks to Australians who are part of a community-based initiative that delivers tangible benefits to refugees trying to resettle here
AS THE GRANDCHILD of four Holocaust survivors and refugees, but someone who grew up “in the lap of luxury”, Daniel Grynberg says he feels a “distinct sense of responsibility” toward refugees. It comes, he says, with the awareness that he is “an empowered Australian male with a law degree”.
A former CEO of the Jewish Communal Appeal (JCA), Sydney-based Grynberg was participating in an online information session for the Group Mentorship Program, run by Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia.
Sponsored by the Sidney Myer Fund, the program sees volunteer groups of at least five (friends, neighbours, part of a community or interest group) provide hands-on support and friendship to newly arrived refugees.
The pilot which Grynberg and his family participated in saw 21 mentor groups trained, and 12 matched with refugees in 2020-21. CRSA is now working with 80 groups across Australia and looking for people to join up in 2022.
It’s a holistic approach focussed on “responding to the person in front of you” and their needs, according to Cindy Carpenter, a program director and member of Grynberg’s Woollahra neighbourhood group.
Among the ambassadors in Australia are former prominent public servant Professor Peter Shergold, philanthropist and refugee advocate Andrew Kaldor and Reverend Tim Costello.
Volunteers are trained in an eight-hour course covering everything from how to work cohesively as a group through to units on trauma, torture and even compassion fatigue, and how to help mentees with whatever they need, be it English practice, employment assistance, even dental appointments.
What we hope for is to get thousands of people organised into small groups able to support the settlement of refugees in our communities.
