Part 1: Case Study
History and evolution of the role of CLWs
Since the establishment of VFST in 1987 it was identified that there was a gap between the model of service provision through counselling and advocacy services, and the needs of the community as a whole with regards to their experience of trauma and their role in trauma recovery. It was recognised that for a number of refugee communities, the idea of accessing trauma counselling and psychosocial support services was challenging and potentially stigmatising. As a result, it was observed that although assessment and support by VFST was undertaken on-arrival in Australia, the offer of ongoing counselling and support was frequently not taken up because of different conceptualisations and understandings of mental health and treatment.
In order to better understand and address the broader needs of their communities, a decision was made to employ Community Liaison Workers (CLWs). The CLW role was initially defined as a member of the refugee community, employed at VFST for the purpose of establishing a connection between members of their community and VFST. This initiative saw the employment of six individuals in 2007 for an initial period of six months. The composition of the CLW group was determined in response to the incoming populations under the Australian Government’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program at the time. This was made up of refugee minorities from Burma including the Chin community arriving from Malaysia and India, the Karen community arriving from camps on the Thai-Burma border [30], as well as refugees of Assyrian-Chaldean ethnicity from Iraq. Thus the initial CaB Team members belonged to the Chin, Karen and Assyrian-Chaldean communities, with two CLWs from each of these communities. Subsequently the Capacity Building (CaB) Team, consisting of the CLWs and a program coordinator, was formally established in 2008.
VFST’s capacity-building strategy is grounded in an ecological approach that is defined by a number of key principles, according to which all interventions:
(1) address individual, family, community and society levels,
(2) reflect community priorities,
(3) implement prevention and treatment strategies,
(4) prioritise building the capacity of people to gain control over resources to enhance lives, and
(5) identify and build the strengths of community members through an active process of collaboration [31].
The changing profile of refugee communities influenced the work of VFST, and the engagement of CLWs from specific communities. The team over time grew to include CLWs of Sierra Leonean, Afghan, Sri Lankan Tamil, Hazara and Syrian backgrounds, although not all positions have been ongoing.
Counsellor Advocates at VFST are engaged within the Direct Services Program to provide individual, group and family support services through specialised trauma-informed counselling and advocacy work [25]. In the early stages, the CaB Team carried out the majority of their work with individuals and families who required counselling and advocacy. CLWs were engaged as “language and cultural support” workers in their joint work with Counsellor Advocates. VFST recognised the need to strengthen the capacity of the organisation to engage more effectively with these communities, develop the capacity of other services in the sector, and also build the capacity of community. Hence the CLW role soon evolved beyond its initial purpose, with the additional role of establishing relationships with members of their community, as well as between other organisations and VFST.
The CaB Team has adapted over time, responding to the changing make-up of refugee communities in Victoria. The CaB Team has worked within budgetary constraints to respond to the needs of new refugee arrivals, which has been influenced by global politics, international events and changes in Australia’s Humanitarian Program intake [32]. In addition, the needs of refugee communities themselves have emerged over time, shifting from initial settlement demands to ongoing challenges in the acculturation process. In response the CLW role has adapted to remain relevant to the community and has included a number of community-specific projects to address particular needs such as the ‘The Coming Together: Two Cultures, One Life’ project with members of the Sudanese community, the ‘The Supporting the Health and Wellbeing of Karen Youth’ project and the ‘Early Childhood Access and Participation’ project with the Chin community to name a few [23].
Over time, the CLWs’ learning and knowledge of the impact of trauma, mental health, counselling and capacity-building has grown. A number of CLWs have undertaken personal and professional development courses and higher education degrees that have in turn enhanced their approach to capacity-building initiatives.
The CaB Team has also sought the contribution of others in particular roles. For example, a significant contribution has been made by Ms Jill Jameson, a pro bono consultant who has overseas experience as a Community Development Worker in South East Asia. For specific projects, the CaB Team has utilised interpreters to assist in language support where there are multiple dialects spoken in the one group. Whilst the CLW role is much broader, and encompasses a range of ongoing activities of relevance to trauma-informed capacity building, Bicultural Workers are also employed by VFST for the completion of specific projects over a defined contract period [23].
The Coordinator of the CaB Team, SS, facilitates a weekly supervision session with CLWs to allow for exploration, discussion, and support in relation to a broad range of issues relating to their work in trauma-informed capacity-building.
As VFST services have expanded and grown, the organisation has opened regional offices across Melbourne. The CaB Team continues to be funded by an allocation from VFST’s Commonwealth government funding. Additional philanthropic funding has allowed the CaB Team to engage in other specific projects to name a few [23].
Current status of CaB Team
The overall goal of VFST’s CaB Team is to strengthen the capability of refugee communities in successfully managing the challenges of acculturation by supporting the development of social networks and through engagement with services to develop meaningful roles in Australian society [33]. Participation by communities themselves in identifying their priorities and issues in resettlement is fundamental to regaining control, building new connections and promoting trauma-informed recovery goals when rebuilding lives.
The current CaB Teamwork plan focuses on three streams of interventions: (1) joint work with Counsellor Advocates from the Direct Services Program, (2) group work, and (3) community capacity-building work.
The current practice of joint work with Counsellor Advocates includes the provision by CLWs of assistance with community engagement, cultural advice, interpreting and advocacy. CLWs assist in the development of trust in the counselling process, which can be culturally unfamiliar to community members. They also enhance the Counsellor Advocates’ understanding of the person’s cultural background and provide an insight into the experience of mental health from their community perspective.
The CaB Team provides various group programs that are focused on capacity-building in community and educational settings. Group work includes psychoeducation to assist community members to understand the mental health impacts of trauma. CLWs work alongside the CaB Team Coordinator SS and Counsellor Advocates to facilitate group programs as requested by services external to VFST. For example, requests may be made by schools that have a cohort of children from a particular community.
Community capacity-building work of CLWs is broad in its scope and is based on the needs of the community. This work is guided by the relationships established between CLWs and their respective communities. As outlined in “A Framework for Community Capacity Building” (2017) there are ten stages that underpin working with individual communities, covering identification of need, initial strategy development, consultation and development and review of the implementation plan:
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Understand the key concerns of a refugee community
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Establish a relationship with a refugee community
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Develop and plan strategies to address a key concern for the refugee community
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Identify people of influence in the refugee community to participate in the capacity-building process
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Establish a structure including recruitment for an advisory group
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Map assets to identify community goals
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Form relationships with external service providers
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Engage in dialogue towards identifying and achieving community goals
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Extend reach of the outcomes to the whole community
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Support community capacity-building sustainability [23].
Part 2: Qualitative study of the perspectives of CLWs
All seven CLWs, five male and two female, participated in the research. Five of the CLWs had more than ten years’ experience, with two newer members of the team having less than five years of experience. Three CLWs were Assyrian, two were Karen, one was Sierra Leonean and one was of Chin background. One had a postgraduate qualification, five were university graduates, and one was a high school graduate.
The following is a summary of the key themes identified on the basis of thematic analysis of the seven transcripts with CLWs (TABLE 1).
Table 1: KEY THEMES REGARDING THE WORK OF CLWs IN TRAUMA-INFORMED CAPACITY-BUILDING STRATEGIES WITH REFUGEE COMMUNITIES
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The role of CLWs is diverse, multi-faceted and complex
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CLWs enable members of refugee communities to access services and empower them to develop independence
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CLWs enhance the capability of service providers
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The community standing of CLWs supports their work in capacity-building
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Goals of CLWs are focused on identifying and addressing the community’s areas of need, and working to promote the self-sufficiency of the community
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The integration of initiatives is important to promote the long-term sustainability of capacity-building initiatives developed by CLWs
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There is a need for allocation of adequate resources to focus on capacity-building
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There is a need for broader recognition of the diverse and complex roles of CLWs
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CLWs need to manage the expectations of community members
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Peer support and supervision are integral to the work of CLWs
1. The role of CLWs is diverse, multi-faceted and complex
A key theme that emerged was the diversity of responsibilities that characterises the role of CLWs. CLWs identified the management of flexibility inherent in their job.
Really (the role of a CLW) depends on the issues because of the flexibility and the changing nature of my job. – CLW-1
All seven CLWs identified a key aspect of their role as providing a bridge between their community and service providers.
We always use the word “ bridge ” between communities and service providers. It’s an important role because we can identify issues, challenges, ways of engagement with the community. At the same time we can…let service providers know about the challenges and…barriers to accessing services and ways to…suit the community needs. – CLW-6
A component of the complexity of the role of CLWs related to the various types of assistance that members of the community required of them in the settlement process.
The impact we have is really to help… settlement into the new country …Contacting, supporting…you become everything to everybody…I have helped to get accommodation, housing for people… – CLW-1
Inherent in this support of community members is the role of advocacy.
It’s…my passion…to…support the community by providing advocacy for the community. I’m providing advocacy in different levels… We identified…a group of overseas drivers…they didn’t have a full licence, so I advocated for their licenses…and we’ve been successful…they applied for truck licences, and they started working. – CLW-5
As part of the diversity of their role, CLWs identified the service provided to individuals and their families attending VFST in joint work with Counsellor Advocates.
So we do joint work with Counsellor Advocates while they are building relationships with clients…we accompany Counsellor Advocates to clients for the assessment period. – CLW-6
CLWs identified their role in various group activities, For example two CLWs identified their role in facilitating a therapeutic group, namely in collective healing, that uses a trauma-informed perspective to allow refugee community members to share their experiences.
Collective healing …We…formed the group ”Healing of memory”…We run…regular workshops inviting the refugee community…the context of the healing. We are talking about the past, present and the future… I am co-facilitating, also I have to share my story of trauma. Also within the group we support each other. – CLW-3
CLWs also identified their role as encompassing the development and implementation of community initiatives that involved building the capacity of community leaders through community consultation, and creating a dialogue with management staff at VFST.
The community engagement…starts because the newly arrived community …are not familiar with the Foundation House system of counselling work. …We start doing that community consultation – we meet with them – we inform them about our services and…discuss with…leadership about how to engage them. – CLW-3
CLWs identified their role in networking with the wider community in the context of building relationships between members of their community and service providers.
Through the network we…invite…not only the refugee community…the wider community… My role is to engage with the mainstream…because we have…to connect everybody outside of the community. – CLW-3
In general CLWs expressed a willingness to educate others, including service providers, in the area of cultural competence.
I also…talk about… cultural orientation. Many teachers from the school don’t know the (…) community identity and the cultural background and they really benefit through that talk. Even in Foundation House itself…I do a lot of advocacy about cultural orientation. – CLW-2
2. CLWs enable members of refugee communities to access services and empower them to develop independence
All CLWs identified that their position enables them to act as a resource for the community, and to enable members of refugee communities to not only access services but also to be empowered to develop independence in the long-term.
One CLW identified their impact as a resource person for the community to identify opportunities and services to meet particular unmet needs.
When we are here as refugees, there are so many opportunities that the refugee communities are not aware of and they do not know how to access it. So…as a CLW, I am…a resource person in the community to…point them to opportunities...whether for families, for the community as a whole. – CLW-1
Another CLW identified that being in such a position enabled them to identify solutions for the community.
So our community get benefits from us….to find solutions or to provide support for the community. – CLW-5
3. CLWs enhance the capability of service providers
A core theme related to the role of CLWs in developing the capacity of services and service providers at many levels.
At a systemic level, one CLW gave insight regarding their role in improving services used by refugees.
There’s a lot of service providers who improve in service…A lot of service providers having developed their capacity…are well established and now have a lot of bicultural workers…providing settlement service, education and…employment service…– CLW-3
Two CLWs identified their improvement of service providers’ cultural understanding of community needs as a key aspect of building this relationship, and integral to trauma-informed capacity building.
Service providers...they don’t really know the communities - their needs…So the work of the CLW is to bring the two parties together to understand each other, so that the service user can better target their services to better plan their services... – CLW-1
4. The community standing of CLWs supports their work in capacity-building
A key factor that was identified as a facilitator of the work of CLWs was their standing in the community as leaders, and their understanding of the community’s experience of trauma. This close relationship with members of the community was considered to be imperative in developing trust. One CLW identified that having a strong relationship with the community allows hidden issues to be identified and addressed.
I need to involve deeply with the community and make the relationship with the community very transparent…to be able to identify more issues…maybe we will be having hidden issues within the community that is destroying the community. – CLW-5
5. Goals of CLWs are focused on identifying and addressing the community’s areas of need and working to promote the developing self-sufficiency of the community
With regards to short-term goals identified by the CLWs, the overarching theme to emerge was that of the diversity of initiatives in trauma-informed community capacity-building that CLWs are engaged in, reflecting their various roles and the many different needs of their communities.
For example, three CLWs identified their goal of developing community groups and events in response to the needs of their communities, such as a women’s interest group and also a parenting group for a newly arrived community.
….it’s an emerging community… It’s a new experience, a new community…we would like to …support that community for the parents’ group. – CLW-5
Among CLWs’ short-term goals was to consider the needs of individuals marginalised within their communities. For example one CLW identified their goal to empower men who may face marginalisation in order to help them find purposeful activities.
The men in our culture…they feel themselves…they don’t have any meaning for their life. So I’m interested to establish this group…to empower them…because they were powerful…in their country of origin…regain their capacity and their capability. – CLW-5
Another CLW identified their goal in addressing marginalisation of young people through reconciliation of intergenerational conflict in their community, arising as a result of the experience of trauma by the community as a whole.
There are issues between the young people and their community elders. So that is a subject of ongoing intervention. We want to see how to bring the two parties together. – CLW-1
With respect to the long-term goals of CLWs in their role of trauma-informed capacity-building the development of self-sufficiency within their communities was identified as of great importance. Two CLWs articulated this goal of ensuring the sustainability of the work of community groups so that they may become self-sufficient, hence making the CLW role redundant.
My desire…is for me to be redundant, so that there won’t be any need for me. If that can happen then I can say we’re successful…nobody needs me because they have been resourced enough to do things without me. – CLW-1
6. The integration of initiatives is important to promote the long-term sustainability of capacity-building initiatives developed by CLWs
It was also noted by participants that facilitating the integration process requires adaptation to intergenerational issues.
Intergenerational gap …for our next generation it’s going to be a challenging process for them to maintain…the two different cultural identity differences. Their parents…still want to keep their own identity…For younger people or children who are born here…to have a kind of compromise to adapt in both ways…can keep the community healthy… a better way in the integration process. – CLW-2
One CLW identified the importance of combining input from both external and internal community experts.
Sometimes professional persons not from the…community…it doesn’t work because we have many strategies, many theories that could be implemented…But many of them they don’t work with that community because we have many ethnicities… In my opinion, we need both…we need professional persons and we need persons from the community…to understand…what strategies…work with the community…what don’t work – CLW-5
7. There is a need for allocation of adequate resources to focus on capacity-building
Another key factor that was identified as necessary for the long-term sustainability of capacity-building initiatives was the allocation of adequate resources. Two CLWs advocated for a sustainable long-term funding model to provide a greater level of security for specific programs.
Sometime we have…one-off funding so… it’s good for at least…two or three years…Instead of one-off project maybe…long-term…the community will take over….this will be more sustainable… Nowadays one project does not have the funding for another two or three years again… we start again so there’s not development of capacity... – CLW-3
8. There is a need for broader recognition of the diverse and complex roles of CLWs
With regard to strategies to enhance the role of CLWs, the need to formally recognise the complexity within the role of CLWs, including the dual nature of their work as employees of VFST and also community leaders was identified.
We have two roles…community leader and…CLW. When we approach our community…we are approaching them as community leaders. And…at Foundation House we approach them as CLW…so still the community are looking at us as community leaders. So it depends on Foundation House to…understand that relationship…and…to provide us with that sense of leadership…to provide us with support to maintain the trust of the community. – CLW-5
The potential benefit of guidelines to assist and guide CLW activities was also identified.
We should be having guidelines within our organisation…like…we have these issues…we have these activities…we have these plans…What do you suggest for us to do at this stage? – CLW-5
9. CLWs need to manage the expectations of community members
CLWs identified certain barriers to their work in trauma-informed capacity-building, including the need to manage the expectations of community members. Three CLWs identified that engagement in community activities may at times go beyond the scope of their role at VFST.
The first challenge is… role clarification …so we are part of the community and also part of the professional organisation…sometimes our role is not clear… Sometimes…we are working on the weekend… community engagement…which part of the activity is core of our Foundation House work and which part of the activity is the community work? – CLW-3
Five CLWs identified the challenge of coping with requests for support from the community outside working hours.
As a community member people always call us even after hours…even if it’s not related to the service that we provide…they think that we know about all the service providers and to direct them…And you can’t say no because the expectation is that you would be there for the community whenever they need you. – CLW-6
Three CLWs expressed insight into the dilemmas involved in identifying the limits of the level of support that may be offered, particularly considering that members of the community they serve are themselves survivors of trauma.
Community have very high expectation from us. The reality is that we can give…services that are trauma [informed]…The community are expecting everything from us… they are expecting we are experts. The other thing is culturally you can’t say no sometimes but reality is we work with Foundation House so sometimes we have to say no. – CLW-3
10. Peer support and supervision are integral to the work of CLWs
The value of peer support from members of the CaB Team was identified. All CLWs identified the value of training and professional development, as well as the formal peer support process involving CLWs and the CaB Team Coordinator.
We receive a lot of training…So always we do a lot of professional development in different ways…The supervision we do weekly as well, that helps us very much – CLW-7
Team peer support is very good …we have other CLWs so we can talk anytime if you think you need help. Sometimes we need the extra support. – CLW-3
Three CLWs identified that the support of peers allowed CLWs to share information and knowledge readily, so that initiatives found to be effective with one particular community could be shared with others.
They already have a lot of experience with their work. If I face any challenges or problems in the community dealing with a particular issue….asking them…whether they have experienced anything similar to my experience…we discuss everything openly…The community also benefits from other communities as well. So sharing information and knowledge helps us a lot. – CLW-2
CLWs particularly identified the importance of supervision in order to cope with trauma that they may be exposed to vicariously through their work.
I’m working with professionals who are dedicated specialists within this sector. So I receive support from them… how to deal with the impact of trauma, how to protect myself… – CLW-5