Laying the foundation

The Victorian Co-operative on Children’s Services for Ethnic Groups, VICSEG, was one of the earliest organisations formed in Victoria to address the needs of migrant communities collectively. It was also the first to focus specifically on the needs of children.

In the early 1980s, multiculturalism began to replace assimilation as the Australian government’s policy on immigration, thanks largely to the work of the Whitlam government.  The White Australia policy was abolished in 1973 and Australia embraced a new multicultural immigration stance. New migrants to Australia no longer faced a ‘sink or swim’ situation where they were forced to adapt to Australian ways. Instead, under a new multicultural policy, migrants were encouraged to maintain their own cultural identities, heritage, language and religion as part of their new Australian lives.

This important cultural shift came about largely as a result of actions by new migrant communities that began to form their own ethno-specific organisations during the 1960s and 1970s. Groups like the Italian CO.AS.IT (Comitato Assistenza Italiano), the Australian Jewish Welfare Relief Society and the Australian Greek Welfare Society (AGWS) were all established to provide assistance and support to the growing migrant communities in Australia. By providing support that was culturally familiar and in a language they could understand, new migrants had a much more stable foundation on which to build their new lives in Australia.

The first nursery group at the Australian Greek Welfare Society Child Care and Community Centre, Richmond, 1970s.
State Library of Victoria, Accession No. H92.250/524

Through the work of such organisations with more recently arrived migrants, it became apparent that children's services for these communities were severely lacking. 

The provision of culturally sensitive childcare and other support services for families and children was a key area of need for migrant communities and the emerging ethnic community groups. 

What we became aware of was that there were very few, if any, trained childcare workers or kindergarten teachers from those countries of origin who could work with children.

Janet Elefsiniotis founding chairperson of VICSEG

In 1977 Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser commissioned the Review of Post-Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants, which resulted in the Galbally Report, released in 1978. The Galbally Report was crucial in promoting the importance of providing services that adequately met the needs of migrant community groups. The report listed 57 recommendations based around four guiding principles:

• That all members of Australian society must have equal opportunity to realise their full potential and equal access to services.
• That everyone should be able to maintain their own culture without discrimination and should also be encouraged to understand others.
• That the needs of migrants should be met by programs and services available to the whole community, but that ethno-specific services were initially necessary to ensure equity of access.
• That services and programs should be designed and operate in full consultation with clients, and self-help should be encouraged as much as possible.

The Galbally Report also recommended that the Office of Child Care be given enough funding to finance 25 Children’s Services Workers to assist ethnic community groups across the country over a period of three years. Victoria was to receive funding for seven of these workers.

Spurred into action as a result of these recommendations, representatives from various ethnic groups in Victoria gathered in September 1978 at the office of Community Child Care in Fitzroy to discuss the ways in which services for migrant children and their families were being developed in Victoria. 

A consensus was reached that a state-level body should be established to ensure that these government-funded Children’s Services Workers were distributed evenly amongst ethnic communities. This body would provide ethnic groups with the advice, resources and assistance to take the care of their children into their own hands. A co-operative was to be formed, mainly composed of representatives from ethnic organisations and state-wide migrant and childcare related bodies. It was with this groundswell of cooperation in 1978 and 1979 that VICSEG was conceived.

Notes from VICSEG’s inaugural meeting, held at the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Fitzroy on 17 July 1980.

Establishing a co-operative

A steering committee of elected representatives from 12 ethnic and welfare organisations was charged with drawing up the guidelines and principles on which the future co-operative (VICSEG) was to be based. It was agreed that the co-operative would operate with an Executive Committee and an elected Management Committee. 

The Executive Committee was made up of a Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Treasurer, Vice Treasurer and Secretary. The role of the Executive Committee was to manage the finances of the co-operative, take on the responsibility of employment and termination of staff and work with the Management Committee in planning the activities and programs of VICSEG. Janet Elefsiniotis was elected the first Chairperson of the Executive Committee.

The Management Committee was to be made up of representatives from various ethnic and welfare organisations. There were elected members, co-opted members and affiliated members. The Management Committee would meet bi-monthly to discuss policies, strategies and correspondence from the Executive Committee. It would also review reports from the Executive Committee and staff, and receive/consider feedback about VICSEG’s work from external agencies and organisations.

With the organisational structure set up, the next step was securing funding and support for the co-operative. 

On 9 November 1979 the steering committee submitted its proposal for funding and the establishment of the Victorian Co-operative on Children’s Services for Ethnic Groups (VICSEG) to the federal government. 

VICSEG had a philosophy based on four guiding principles: 

• Making general community services more accessible and sensitive to the needs of migrant families.
• Recognising that in some circumstances separate services were required to cater for ethnic or cultural groups.
• Facilitating co-operation between ethnic groups and rejecting the concept that ethnic groups should compete for limited resources.
• Recognising that migrant families seeking services need assistance in a wide variety of ways.

By May 1980, VICSEG’s proposal was accepted and the co-operative received its first funding grant. This supported the employment of a Co-ordinator, three Ethnic Children’s Services Workers and a Secretary.

What VICSEG was designed to do was to essentially … be able to be adaptable enough that when other migrant groups came to Australia, that they could pick up on them as well.

Peter Quick, project officer Department of Community Welfare Services, Victoria

With the help of Community Child Care, VICSEG set up its first office at 213 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. There were five staff members to begin with. The first of these was the Co-ordinator, Jill Reichstein, who came to VICSEG after working in community-based childcare for the Brunswick Community Group and the Brunswick City Council. She started work as the Co-ordinator of VICSEG in September 1980.

Co-ordinator Arlene D’Mello and Ethnic Children’s Services Worker Helen Srsen outside VICSEG’s first office in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, c. 1982.

In early December 1980, three Ethnic Children’s Services Workers and a Secretary/Research Associate were employed. Helen Srsen, Arlene D’Mello and Carlos Montalvo were the first three Ethnic Children’s Services Workers employed. Between the three of them they spoke seven languages and had experience working with more than ten different ethnic groups. Rounding out the team was Mary Gross who was employed as Secretary/Research Associate.

With the foundations firmly laid, this dedicated staff of five jumped in head first. The long hours, bureaucratic frustrations and funding fears they were to face over the coming years failed to dampen their enthusiasm or sense of purpose. 

There was excitement in the air ... there seemed to be a feeling that Australia was experiencing a rebirth. The influx of earlier migrants, like the Italians and Greeks, was replaced by the Turkish and Lebanese and when the Vietnamese boat people arrived in their thousands, something had to be done.

Arlene D’Mello, VICSEG Ethnic Children’s Services Worker

The first nursery group at the Australian Greek Welfare Society Child Care and Community Centre, Richmond, 1970s.
State Library of Victoria, Accession No. H92.250/524

VICSEG staff and Management Committee members, c. 1980s.
Gabrielle Fakhri’s private collection

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