Multicultural Community Outreach Program (MCOP)

About

The Multicultural Community Outreach Program was delivered in two phases to support culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project helped communities access clear, trusted COVIDSafe information and encouraged safe health practices, including vaccination. A key focus across both phases was co-design, so messages were created with communities, in community languages, and shared through trusted local networks.

Timing

Phase 1 (MCOP 1): 2021
Focused on co-design workshops and creating in-language story-based resources that shared lived experience and encouraged vaccination.

Phase 2 (MCOP 2): 2022
Expanded co-design and community-led content creation, with a stronger focus on vaccine hesitancy, long COVID misinformation and skills development through training.

Who was involved

Across both phases, Australian Multicultural Community Services (AMCS) worked with multicultural community members and community groups in Victoria.

Phase 1 (2021):

• 37 community members from diverse cultural backgrounds participated in co-design workshops.

Phase 2 (2022):

• AMCS collaborated with 11 Victorian community groups representing multicultural backgrounds including Sri Lankan, Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamil, Indian Tamil, Indian Hindu, Vietnamese, Afghan, Lebanese, Palestinian, Maltese and Egyptian communities.
• More than 100 ethnic community leaders and members took part in workshops, training and content creation.

Funders

This project was supported by the Victorian Government through the Multicultural Communications Outreach Program (MCOP).
Phase 2 was supported through funding from the Victorian Government’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.