News Alert |

The City of Ballarat will mark Refugee Week 2019 – themed ‘A World of Stories’ with a flag raising event and civic reception today at 11am.   

Refugee Week is from Sunday 16 to Saturday 22 June 2019. The week aims to celebrate the contributions of refugees and to learn about the experiences of people escaping oppression and seeking asylum. 

 As of June 2018, more than 68.5 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced. 

City of Ballarat welcomes refugees  

The City of Ballarat has a strong commitment to welcoming and supporting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.  

In 2013, council declared the municipality a ‘Refugee Welcome Zone’, which commits it to welcome and uphold the rights of refugees in our community and to demonstrate compassion and enhance cultural and religion diversity.  

In 2013, council also signed up to the Australian Human Rights Commission campaign to stamp out racism ‘Racism. It Stops with Me’.  

In 2015, a delegation of Ballarat civic leaders met with Federal and State politicians to promote the Ballarat Regional Settlement Advocacy Committee (BRSAC) strategy to make Ballarat a preferred destination for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.  

In 2019, council adopted its Intercultural City Strategic Plan 2019-21.  This document provides our direction in future planning for the needs of diverse groups over the next five years.   The plan is about building social inclusion by pursuing and enhancing social, economic, cultural, health and wellbeing of our City’s culturally and linguistically divers communities.