Room to grow

REFUGEE and asylum seeker women from different cultures will come together to create their own safe space at Diversitat’s North Geelong base.
The new program A Room to Grow has been on the community organisation’s wish list and can now go ahead thanks to $40,000 Survive and Thrive Grant from the Give Where You Live Foundation announced this month.
Diversitat’s prevention and early intervention program aims to assist women create a safe and culturally appropriate space to help build their confidence and access support and services.
Family Violence Prevention Project lead, Carmel Carroll, said the Diversitat team had been talking about the idea for a long time and the grant would enable it to happen.
“We can really see a need for women to have a space they can call their own,” Ms Carroll said.
“The women will be designing what they want together, creating it together, and it will be women from different cultures different backgrounds; asylum seeker women, refugee women, migrant women.
“It will be a social space, a learning space, and we want them to think about the strengths they bring to Australia and work with them to build their new life here.
“To see them learning English, running a family, getting a job, that for me is just amazing to see and to watch that journey.”
Ms Carroll said the funding would enable Diversitat to employ a coordinator to work with the women and help them design the space.
A Room to Grow is one of 26 projects and programs across the Geelong region which have been funded through Give Where You Live’s 2021 Survive and Thrive Grants.
The grants support “those experiencing a life-inhibiting crisis”, either through funding immediate basic needs or helping build resilience and creating a sense of belonging and acceptance.