Navigating Resettlement: Matched Mentoring and Creative Media Design with Refugee and Migrant Youth in Transition, Greater Western Sydney

According to the UNHCR, the number of people displaced due to persecution, conflict, generalised violence or human rights violations has increased significantly since 2015. There are currently more than one million refugees in need of resettlement. Experiences of forced displacement call on us to consider the lived reality of those attempting to resettle in Australia and to ask how communities can work together to respond practically and compassionately to the diverse emotional, material and educational needs of refugees. Navigating Resettlement was a collaborative year-long research project between the Western Sydney University Centre for Educational Research and SydWest. This research looked at how young refugees' educational and life aspirations could be supported through an informal educational model using mentoring, digital literacy workshops and a creative space. The story of young refugees who were part of the SydWest Study Centre in Blacktown in 2016-17 will be highlighted in this report. The young people who were part of the Navigating Resettlement project expressed high educational aspirations as well as hopes, dreams, challenges and desires for livelihood opportunities. The hope of the research team is that the Navigating Resettlement project serves as a successful model for authentic engagement with young refugees and continues to impact positively on policy development and pathways into education.