Grants of up to $50,000 are now available to support multicultural events and communities. The Multicultural Festivals and Events (MFE) Program funds multicultural and multifaith community organisations to hold cultural festivals and events for Victorian communities. The program offers grants of up to $50,000 to support activities that promote and foster social cohesion. There are two key objectives: • to ensure Victorians can celebrate and preserve cultures, and share traditions • to encourage the broader Victorian community to take part in events that further learning, understanding and respect for different cultures and traditions. Over $1 million will be available through the Regional Multicultural Festivals and Events Fund to support regional multicultural community organisations and the delivery of events across regional Victoria. Events must be held between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025: • Successful recipients under round 1 must hold events between 1 July 2024 and 31 December 2024. • Successful recipients under round 2 must hold events between 1 January 2025 and 30 June 2025. The round 1 program is now open and will close 3:00 pm Friday 19 April 2024. More information available @ Multicultural Festivals and Events Program | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au) Nikki

NIECH has been successful securing a brand new grant in partnership with the Good Things Foundation, Telstra and Microsoft. This is a pilot project that will focus on assisting refugee and migrant women to access and learn how artificial intelligence can benefit their lives. I am currently on a working party with the GTF, developing the material/content for the program. We will then be rolling the project out across the Network between July and December this year. Any questions let me know. Stay tuned! Nikki

Learn Local Industry Grants are now taking EOI's. More information about the Grant and how to apply is available at: DJSIR – Learn Local Sector – 14 February 2024 – Learn Local – Industry Just in Time Initiative is Open for 2024 | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au) You can apply as an individual Learn Local provider or as a group. Applications close October 2024 (a long way away!!!) Nikki

Hi Network As you all know NIECH have been delivering Digital Mentor training for both Mandarin and English speakers across the Network since September last year, paying Member’s for room bookings and a financial incentive of $50 per referral to the program. The training has been very well received particularly by the Mandarin speaking community and as a result, we have hit our target/met the requirements of the program 3 months early😊The GTF have advised us we are no obligation to continue delivering. Therefore, Jimmy is delivering his last workshop this Friday and then we will be using some of our surplus funds to deliver a number of IT/info workshops to social housing residents in April/May. If you have referred people to the program in Term 1 I will be in contact soon re invoice/payment for your referrals. I am meeting with the Director of the Good Things Foundation/Be Connected next week and will be advocating for more grants for our Network based on the feedback we have received/the demand. If there is anything particular you would like me to share with her, please let me know Thank you all for your support delivering another successful round of Be Connected funding and I will keep you updated re further opportunities. Nikki

Our Be Connected project has been tracking well during the past 4 months. Jimmy and Tom have trained 73 Digital Mentors so far. Well done! Two face to face sessions have been scheduled for February 2024. One at Bowen St CC and the other at Box Hill South NH. Both sessions will be delivered in Mandarin. Bookings are now open. The $50 financial incentive for Member's that refer people that complete the training remains in place for all of Term 1. Feel free to share training session flyers with your contacts. Nikki

Our Be Connected project has been tracking well during the past 4 months. Jimmy and Tom have trained 73 Digital Mentors so far. Well done! Two face to face sessions have been scheduled for February 2024. One at Bowen St CC and the other at Box Hill South NH. Both sessions will be delivered in Mandarin. Bookings are now open. The $50 financial incentive for Member's that refer people that complete the training remains in place for all of Term 1. Feel free to share training session flyers with your contacts. Nikki

Hi Members NIECH will be holding an end of year get together on Thursday 14th December from midday – 2.30pm in the gardens at Mount Street NH. We will be running a fun sip (no alcohol provided as we require a permit) and paint session (for those interested), and lunch will be provided. If you plan on attending, please RSVP me by 7th December for catering purposes. BYO apron or smock if you wish to paint and a glass to consume non alcoholic drinks😊 Hope to see you all there! Nikki

Hi Network A number of you are running Chatty Cafes and I encourage you to post the details and photos (with consent) onto the Chatty Cafe website/facebook page - as it is a good source of marketing! I have also recently been in touch with the contractor that prints the teardrop/stand Chatty Cafe banner, on behalf of our Member Houses. They are $235.00 and are made to order. If you are interested in pruchasing one for your NH/Chatty cafe please email Maggie at: silverwater@gigaprint.com.au;(mailto:silverwater@gigaprint.com.au)

An updated resource developed by the Service Agreement Performance Branch of DFFH.

Attached is the new training guide (2022 ver) developed by the Service Agreement Performance branch of DFFH Central re FAC. A useful resource.

Please find attached the Minutes from the meeting on 5/10 with NHVic and NHV Assist. The issue of staffing backfill will be tabled for further discussion at the next Member's meeting in November.

Hi Here is the link to NIECH's Annual Report and the Minutes from the AGM held on 14/9/23. Annual Report https://www.niech.org.au/file-share/da3abec3-b578-47fd-9205-e81d0a279817(https://www.niech.org.au/file-share/da3abec3-b578-47fd-9205-e81d0a279817)   Minutes https://www.niech.org.au/file-share/4245aa0a-73c2-4afb-9590-b6ee334f00b7(https://www.niech.org.au/file-share/4245aa0a-73c2-4afb-9590-b6ee334f00b7)

The NIECH Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 14 September from 1pm-3pm @ Canterbury NC. See attachment for more information and please RSVP by 7 September for catering purposes.

Hi Network,   As you would be aware NIECH secured another Capacity Building Grant via the Be Connected program in July this year.   This time around we have committed to training at least 70 Mandarin speaking Digital Mentors and 25 others.   We have employed two Digital Leads to deliver the training both face to face and via Zoom with a particular focus on recruiting and training people from the Network. We hope this will create a pool of Mandarin speaking volunteers that Member Houses can then call on to provide IT support and assistance or possibly even classes to people from Mandarin speaking backgrounds, as there is a growing demand for this. NIECH is the only organisation in Australia that is delivering training to Mandarin speakers at this point in time!   Between now and May next year we plan to deliver 14 face to face sessions and 8 Zoom/online training sessions. More than half of these sessions will be delivered in Mandarin and the remainder will be delivered in English. We are keen to recruit and train as many people as possible across the Network – they can be Staff, tutors, volunteers, program participants, contacts at other organisations, students or even family members. If someone has already undertaken the Be Connected Digital Mentor training they cannot do it again.   For every person a House refers to the training and if that person successfully completes the training (6 hours face to face sessions or 4 hour online sessions) NIECH will provide that House with a financial reward (that is $50 per referral). We have set up a data system that records where the referrals have come from and at the end of each term, I will contact Member Houses and advise them of how many of their referrals completed the training and request an invoice from you so you can be paid accordingly. Referrals from outside sources will not be paid for referrals.   It would be fantastic if you could advertise the training in your House, via your Newsletters and via social media and get on board and support this project as we are keen to build our capacity as a Network to support non English speaking older people to get online!   We plan to advertise sessions term by term and provide updates re numbers/our capacity as we work our way through the project.   Contact Jimmy.beconnected@niech.org.au or Tom.beconnected@niech.org.au for session dates and times and to book your referrals in.     Nikki        

Feel free to circulate this information re a free training session to your Committee and Staff   Free customised training sessions for Victorian men’s sheds and neighbourhood houses   We’ve partnered with the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to provide free training sessions for Victorian men's sheds and neighbourhood houses on a range of topics to help you better understand your legal obligations. These sessions are delivered in plain language, with no legal jargon, and include opportunities to consider and workshop scenarios and activities.  If you’re involved with a Victorian men’s shed, register for a session here.  If you’re involved with a Victorian neighbourhood house, register for Creating Positive Auspicing Relationships and Governing a Community Organisation

The next online forum for Commitee members to connect, share information and discuss issues will be held online on the 15th August 2023 @ 5pm. Please share this info with your Committees'. The link to the meeting/forum is in the attached flyer.

Hi Member’s As discussed at the Members meeting last week NIECH has secured another round of Be Connected funding! This time around we are changing our model of delivery and will be bringing the training/digital mentors back to the Network. We have recruited two Lead Digital Mentors (one is Mandarin speaking) and they will be delivering a number of workshops across NIECH between August this year and May 2024. This time around we will be focussing on trying to recruit Mandarin or Cantonese speaking Digital mentors to undertake the training as well as non-Mandarin speaking Digital Mentors. More info to come!   Firstly, we are looking for rooms to deliver the training in across the Network. The rooms need to hold a minimum of 7 people/maximum of 12 and ideally should have the facilities for the trainers to be able to use a power point presentation, their lap tops etc. Parking should also be accessible for the participants (we don’t want them leaving the session every hour to feed parking meters or risk getting a parking fine!!) NIECH will advertise the training, provide catering on the day and will manage all of the logistics – all you need to do is provide us with a comfortable room and display the flyers for the upcoming sessions. The sessions are 6 hours long – NIECH will pay you $200 for the room hire for the session.   I am seeking EOI’s for the following days: Wednesday 30th August 10am-4pm Tuesday 5th September 10am-4pm Wednesday 13th September 10am-4pm Wednesday 11th October 10am-4pm Tuesday 17th October 10am-4pm Thursday 2nd November 10am-4pm Friday 1st December 10am-4pm   Wednesday 7th February 2024 10am-4pm Wednesday 21st February 10am-4pm Thursday 7th March 10am-4pm Wednesday 13th March 10am-4pm Wednesday 24th April 10am-4pm Tuesday 30th April 10am-4pm Friday 3rd May 10am-4pm   As you can appreciate we are likely to get more EOI’s than sessions available – if more than one House expresses an EOI for a particular date, I will draw Houses/names out of a hat!!! Please send me your EOI/your preferred date, by close of business this Friday so we can book the sessions in and get started on marketing the project. Any questions, let me know Thank you Nikki      

We have just been advised that NIECH has been successful securing another round of the Be Connected Capacity Building Skills funding! This project will provide more opportunities for Member Houses to be involved in the delivery of the project - including opportunities for room hire, payment for referrals to the program and ultimately utilising a Mandarin/Cantonese speaking Digital mentor workforce across the Network. More information will be provided at the upcoming Member's meeting and via this site soon.