Youth Leadership Development - Interview with Dave Andrews (Part II)

In this second part of the interview with Dave Andrews regarding the leadership development with young people with refugee background, it focuses on how a community worker works in a multicultural background.

Andrews points out in a cross-cultural environment, community worker needs to be sensitive to people who have different approach and come with different culture, tradition, religion and language, and accept and respect those differences. And at the same time, community worker needs to help people to be sensitive to one another.  The term of ‘refugee’ presumes everyone the same but they are different. There are unresolved tensions of political, ethnical and religious differences among them.  People with refugee background painfully aware their differences.  Community worker needs to support them to work through their differences.  Andrews reflects the caste system exists in Australia as it is in India. There are significant prejudices in Australia.  Community worker needs to help people to understand the prejudices against them and deal with the prejudices in a creative way.  His community group has used hip pop music to create a space to allow young people to acknowledge and express their angers, and respond to their angers creatively rather than violently.

Andrews recommends community worker getting to know other cultures not only to meet people but to understand them by learning their culture and religion. When we spend time with other cultural group, we will be able to understand how a minority feel in a society dominant by the majority.  To do so, we can join an ethnical group, participate in their festival, read as much as we can about them, and talk with as many people as we can to understand them.  If it is affordable, go to a particular country for three to six months.  And when we start the work, Andrews suggests us having at least two to three mentors or advisors from the ethnic group that we try to work with.  They can be the elder and mature people who can inform and sensitize us on their issues, and help us to understand the difficulties they face.  It is not much about community engagement in term of cultivation but an ongoing relationship with someone who actually can inform us and help us to reflect on the issues.

Community work is full of challenges and frustrations. Andrews reminds that community worker should always works for the best but has to be prepared for the worst.  Every human story has a light side and dark side.  Community worker has to focus on the light side and learn to cope with the dark side, so that we are not dis-functioned by despair and can continually to engage with the work constructively and creatively.  It is a spiritual work that all community workers need to deal with.

Andrews acknowledges that cross cultural community work especially with young people with refugee and multicultural background is a critical issue for the future of Australia.  It is important to help the youths to adapt, adjust and develop in Australia in a way to affirm their country of origin and create constructive experiences.  He reflects that many youth workers have done excellent work but the work is tough as many are under resourced.  In his closure comment, he calls for more support and resources for these workers to support the youths.