The refugee action support program in Sydney, Australia : a bridge between cultures

The Refugee Action Support program was launched in 2007 through a partnership between Western Sydney University, the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Communities, and the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. The partners share a commitment to facilitating support for the education and resettlement of refugee youth in Greater Western Sydney. Though each partner understood the need, they could not implement the refugee program on their own. It was essential for the partners to propose collaborative solutions, consider limitations, and implement a program that was both sustainable and effective. The resulting program is an academic English language and literacy tutoring initiative in which university education students are recruited and trained to provide one-on-one and small group support for recently settled students of refugee background who are enrolled in years 7–11 at participating schools. Each tutor engages in sixty hours of activity in a given semester, which equates to tutoring four hours per week for twelve weeks plus an initial twelve-hour training session delivered by the University, the Department of Education and Communities, the Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, and the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors. In addition to the initial training, tutors receive ongoing supervision from school staff, four weeks of professional experience in the classroom, related university coursework, certification, and course credit. Therefore, community engagement is positioned as central—not peripheral—to the professional and civic development of preservice teachers. A cohort of tutors is recruited each semester.