It is expecting that the Department of Home Affairs will soon release the grant decisions on the Fostering Integration initiative.
About Fostering Integration Grants
The initiative has multiple aims. Firstly, the initiative promotes and encourages the uptake of Australian values and liberal democracy and amplifying the value of Australian citizenship. Secondly, it intends to address issues within Australian communities that show potential for, or early signs of, low social integration. Thirdly, it looks for projects that will promote social cohesion and better understanding between people from diverse ethnical backgrounds.
Official link to the grant opportunity
Brief
Diverse Australia Inc. submitted its proposal of creating the content for, and delivering an Australian Values Course, which will have both on-line and off-line components.
One of the objectives of the Australian Values Course is to promote and encourage the uptake of Australian values and to amplify the value of Australian citizenship. All the outcomes we expect to achieve from launching the course directly respond to this objective, because our course is about Australian values, the privilege of being granted an Australian visa, the privilege of continuing to hold an Australian visa, and most importantly, the privilege of applying for Australian citizenship, if the residence and character requirements are met.
It is impossible to meet the residence requirement if the person resided in Australia unlawfully even part of the residence period. Unlawful residence very often occurs because of criminal convictions, visa cancellation and detention as a result of these. Our course is about informing and making migrants aware of being beyond the law, about the importance of valuing what is valued in Australia. As a result of our course, the outcomes will be the following: migrants will know what the Australian values are, what is unacceptable because of the mores of society and what is illegal according to the law, what type of conduct should be avoided, how other members of their communities should be assisted not to be involved in criminal activity, how the behaviour of adolescents should be monitored to minimise the risk of drug related offences, what happens in case of breaking the law and what the negative consequences are, such as visa cancellation, detention and possible removal from Australia.
Timeline
Application Submission
Develop a free multilingual online course with online and on-site components to promote a greater understanding of Australian values for permanent and temporary visa holders, Australian citizenship and its value, visa cancellation risks for not being of good character. The course will be free of charge and everyone will be able to benefit from it.
Outcomes of applications
It is expecting that the Department of Home Affairs will soon release the grant decisions on the Fostering Integration initiative.
Implementation
Design and implement a course to teach migrants what is right and what is contrary to Australian values. We expect the course to be free to all migrants and to have both an online and an on-site component, which could be done at the same time or separately from each other, to make sure both migrants in rural and remote areas and those in urban areas can benefit from it in equal measure. For the online component, we expect to utilize an Australian e-learning platform.