Practice
Profile
Cultural X Change Project
Contact details
Agency: Mensline Australia
Address:
PO Box 2335
Footscray VIC 3011
Contact: Jeremy Hearne
Mensline Australia Manager of Programs
Phone: 03 8371 2813
Fax: 03 8371 2888
Email: jhearne@menslineaus.org.au
Website: www.menslineaus.org.au
Funding source
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) under the Family Relationship Services Program (FRSP).Program duration and frequency
12 month program – April 2007 – March 2008.
Program description
After an examination of the Mensline Australia caller statistics it was recognised that specific communities were underrepresented in their use of the line. In order to address this issue the service established the Cultural X Change Project. The primary target groups identified as part of this project include Indigenous Men, Arabic Men, Vietnamese Men and Young Men aged 18-25.
The Project has a number of partners around the country who provide FRSP funded programs. These include Anglicare Resolve in Darwin, Centacare Brisbane, Uniting Care Burnside in Western Sydney and Centacre Burnie in Nthn Tasmania. Co-located with each of these agencies and with Crisis Support Services in Melbourne are a number of Community Liaison Workers representative of each of the target communities. Each of these workers has key responsibilities that match with the key milestones for the project. These include:
- Conducting listening circles with representatives from the target communities with the intention of hearing and recording the relationship issues most significant to their community
- Developing culturally specific web pages linked to the Mensline Australia site
- Developing tip sheets that respond to the specific relationship needs of the men from these communities
- Producing digital stories that reflect significant relationship issues for the men from the target communities. These stories run for around three minutes each and are viewable from the target communities web sites
- Running specific issue ‘chat room’ sessions via the on-line forum on the Mensline website
- Supporting the production of culturally relevant versions of existing Mensline Australia promotional material
As a result of this enhanced engagement with each target community Mensline Australia will be better placed to respond to the needs of the men from each of these communities.
This will be measured via an increase in calls to Mensline as well as improved relationships with the target communities.
The above materials are available for viewing through the following links:
- www.menslineaus.org.au
- www.menslineaus.org.au/indigenous
- www.menslineaus.org.au/youth
- www.menslineaus.org.au/arabic
- www.menslineaus.org.au/vietnamese
Geographical Area
- Local community
- Australia wide
Target Group
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Has the program/practice been the subject of evaluation?
Yes
(a) What is the type of evaluation?
External/independent
(b) What instruments were relied on to evaluate the program/practice?
Other (details below)
(c) Briefly describe the outcomes of the evaluation:
The evaluation will be available in June 2008.