Families in Cultural Transition

The Families in Cultural Transition (FICT) program is an innovative psycho educational program specifically designed to involve participants in an experiential learning process to prepare them for the challenges of settling in a new country while overcoming the effects of their torture and trauma experiences. FICT was developed by STARTTS and has previously been funded by grants from the NSW Department for Women, the NSW Social Policy Directorate and the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services, Services Stronger Families and Communities Strategy.

FICT specifically targets and assists newly arrived adults of refugee and refugee-like backgrounds. The FICT program supports participants to anticipate and manage their psychosocial settlement needs and changing family dynamics during their period of cultural transition into Australia. The FICT program enables participants to recognise the differing perspectives that family members (women, men, children and adolescents) may develop in Australia in response to their new surroundings and cultures that are presented. Participants are also able to develop an appreciation of the ideas behind Australian society and institutions in order to know their rights and ensure that these rights are upheld. Many adults who graduate from the FICT program become involved in local community development initiatives within their local area.

The FICT Program centres around a Resource Kit that provides group facilitators with a comprehensive package of materials to run the 10 x 3 hour sessions in the complete program, as well as information on running groups in general. Each module in the program covers a topic area of particular relevance to families trying to settle in Australia and which:

	Contribute to overcoming isolation in new arrivals by the development of support networks
	Detect difficulties, avert crisis situations and solve problems that may arise in the family as a result of cultural and intergenerational differences
	Recognise the differing perspectives men, women, children and adolescents may develop in Australia in response to the new culture
	Understand the ideas behind Australian society and institutions in order to know their right and ensure that these rights are upheld

FICT provides opportunities for migrants and refugees to overcome their isolation as new arrivals through the development of personal and professional support networks during the length of the program and beyond. FICT employs migrants and refugees as bi-cultural facilitators to deliver the modules to their respective communities. Over the past two or so years FICT has been delivered through three different methods these include: bi-cultural facilitators employed by STARTTS, STARTTS staff and through the NSW Department of Education STARTTS’ sister organisations in Western Australian and the Northern Territory, ASeTTS and Melaleuca House.

Groups have already been delivered within South and North Sudanese communities, Somali community, Mandean Community, Tibetan and Afghan and former Yugoslav communities. STARTTS conducts regular community consultations with refugee communities and recent consultation results with African communities indicate that they consider FICT to be a culturally and contextually appropriate intervention, which they would like to see delivered widely. Should the project funding be approved, we intend to train bi-cultural facilitators from Congolese, Liberian, Sierra Leone and Burundian communities.
For more information about the Families in Cultural Transition Program contact the FICT Project Officer on (02) 9794 1900.