On Monday 30 October, two city officials from the City of Nagoya came to Sydney to learn more about multiculturalism in Australia.
They stopped by our office and also visited MOSAIC (Multicultural One Stop Assistance Information Centre) in Willoughby, Chatswood Library and Sydney Town Hall.
At Chatswood Library, Ms. Vivian Chung, a multicultural services librarian, talked about the multicultural services that the library provides. The visiting officials learned that the library, which is a facility often visited by residents, provides English classes and the book research system installed there is available in several languages which clearly displays the amount of effort to enable people from various ethnic backgrounds to access the library more easily.At MOSAIC, the visiting officers attended a presentation on Willoughby Council’s Multicultural Services delivered by Ms. Sun-Hae Kim, MOSAIC Centre Supervisor. They learned that some of the reasons for MOSAIC’s success are a strong commitment from highly skilled volunteers, collaboration with local communities and service providers, and the staff’s dedication and professionalism.
At Sydney Town Hall, the Nagoya City officials received a lecture about multicultural policy and initiatives of the City of Sydney from Ms. Susana Ng, Senior Social Programs Officer of City of Sydney. They learned that the City of Sydney recognizes people from all walks of life not only as people to be supported but also as people who can contribute to the local communities in the future and as such tries to actively engage with them.
The visiting officials were really thankful for the kind hospitality shown by all the speakers from the respective organisations. We believe they were able to learn a lot about multiculturalism and multicultural policies in Australia. CLAIR Sydney will continue to support Japanese local government activities such as this one that enable deeper engagement between sister cities and the valuable exchange of information and knowledge on important topics such as multiculturalism and diversity.
