Our Impact

The Cities and Settlement Program aims to improve the economic and social participation of refugees in Australia. There is overwhelming evidence that the best way to support humanitarian migrants to build flourishing lives is to help them find a job. The Centre for Policy Development 2017 Settling Better Report highlighted key barriers to integration into the labour market, as well as the fragmented nature of the current government arrangements for humanitarian support. This Report was well received and encouraged CPD to develop the three year Cities and Settlement Program, to enhance the delivery of employment and settlement services for refugees.

CPD’s track record of successfully convening in complex policy environments encouraged VFFF to join The Myer Foundation in providing three years of funding (2018-2021) totalling $600,000 towards this high potential initiative. Cities and Settlement was an opportunity to complement VFFF’s strong focus on supporting direct service provision in this area with a grant to support strategic policy influencing work.

To date, CPD’s work is positively impacting the settlement policy discourse in a number of ways:

• Generating consensus among influential stakeholders (including senior Federal, State and Local Government representatives) on the need for a Federal ‘centre of gravity’ for refugee policy making, to produce more joined-up approaches to policy and services
• Demonstrating the long-term value of a place-based approach to settlement support through which Federal and State governments pool their efforts and resources to empower locally-led solutions
• Influencing important Federal government review processes and advisory mechanisms, including informing the 2019 Investing in Refugees, Investing in Australia Review into integration, employment and settlement outcomes for refugees and humanitarian migrants.