Transcript available at: https://bit.ly/3nt1GDz

Program/Episode title: Overdue: Yarra Youth Workers (English)

Presenter: Agum

Guests: Alfia and Eyerusalem

Language: English

How do you support members of multicultural communities who speak English as an additional language (or not at all) during a pandemic? It’s a question many of us may wonder. And it’s a question we try to get answers to.

Alfia speaks Oromo, Arabic, French and English; and Eyerusalem speaks Amharic, Tigrinya, and English. They both started working as City of Yarra Bicultural Liaison Officers (BLOs) last year with Yarra Libraries outreach and other local services, helping out with food programs, vaccine certificates, and vaccine pop-up clinics.

Join them in conversation with Agum as they share what they learned about the importance of community representation, and how their skills have led to further employment opportunities with Yarra Youth Services and beyond.

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The Yarra Libraries Overdue podcast is produced by and for culturally and linguistically diverse communities in the City of Yarra in multiple languages.

The Covid-19 pandemic has kickstarted many overdue conversations. This podcast makes space for community members to share their personal insights and experiences. The pandemic has shown us that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work, and exposed a lack of culturally appropriate government support for these communities.

The Yarra Libraries Overdue podcast calls for more support to help determine and co-create community based solutions to ongoing challenges. This podcast is co-produced by community members from different Yarra projects and organisations working with Yarra Libraries to raise awareness around covid messaging and community-based responses.

Overdue is facilitated and produced by Yarra Libraries, and supported by the Victorian Government through the Priority Response to Multicultural Communities during Coronavirus (PRMC) program.

#yarralibraries #librarieschangelives #podcast #cityofYarra #CALDcommunities #coronavirus #COVID19 #COVID19vaccines #COVID19VicData #YarraYouthServices

Thumbnail image: Alfia

Image Description: Headshot of a young muslim woman wearing a white scarf with a patterned band. She is located inside a car, and is smiling sweetly at the camera.

Music by: Maarten Schellekens: Will they find us?

CC BY-NC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/