Upcoming Event
Representatives from the Department of Home Affairs will be in Horsham on Friday 13 September to gather feedback to help shape the reform of Australia’s migration system.
This is an opportunity for interested residents to raise thoughts and ideas around migration, specific to the Wimmera Southern Mallee region.
The consultation session will be held between 9.30am and 10.30am at the auditorium at Federation University Horsham campus.
Link: Trybooking.
About the Settlement Program
This program helps individuals and families from migrant and refugee backgrounds to settle into life in the Hindmarsh, Horsham, Northern Grampians, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack shires.
We provide new arrivals with settlement-related information, advice, advocacy, and assistance to access mainstream and other relevant services. We help them to become independent and self-reliant and able to participate in Australian society as soon as possible.
The program is largely funded through the Federal Government’s Settlement Engagement and Transition Support (SETS).
Services are delivered in accordance with a needs-based approach and align with the 10 priority areas identified in the National Settlement Framework (385kb PDF).
Range of services
Services include individual client casework, assistance with driving lessons, homework clubs, social networks such as playgroups and sewing group, and linkages to other support services.
WSMD considers migration a primary driver to the prosperity of the region and works with a range of partners and stakeholders to deliver services, support communities and advocate for migration as a regional priority issue.
Eligibility for individual casework
-
Permanent residents with low level of English proficiency who arrived in Australia during the past five years as:
-
Humanitarian entrants
-
Family stream migrants with low English proficiency
-
Dependents of skilled migrants in rural and regional areas with low English proficiency
-
Selected other stream visas – see Eligible visa subclasses on the Department of Home Affairs website
-
Selected temporary residents (Prospective Marriage, Provisional Partner visa holders and their dependents) in rural and regional areas who have arrived in the past five years and who have low English proficiency; or
-
Dependents of selected temporary residents (Provisional Skilled, Provisional Business or Investment) in rural and regional areas who have arrived in the past five years and who have low English proficiency.
