Embedded within Co-Health, I have designed, developed and tested a series of interventions which supports newly arrived displaced people in the capacity building of bi-cultural skills in order to gain meaningful employment.

Newly arrived displaced people experience barriers when gaining employment due to language skills and cultural understanding (Refugee Health Network, 2012). Access to meaningful employment has been identified as a critical barrier to seeking health care services within Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Wealthfare, 2016). My research identified that this could be alleviated by improving employment opportunities for refugee people.

Co-health has begun employing refugee background people from diverse backgrounds as bi-cultural staff and interpreters. The role of bi-cultural workers within Co-health is to facilitate community development and bi-cultural communication between Co-health and their own community.

The interventions I have designed are for these bi-cultural workers. The tools have been co-designed in an iterative design research process with Co-health staff, course facilitators and currently employed bi-cultural staff. The toolkit is to help improve this process by creating a standard of bi-cultural work.

The interventions consist of booklets about capacity building and employment processes, interactive method facilitation posters, and a set of skill development cards.