Dr Cen Amores who is founding president of the Alliance of Philippine Community Organisations or APCO was among the afternoon resource speakers during the CAL D Communities Conference held last 12 June at Cabra-Vales Diggers Club in Cabrammatta,NSW.
About 300 community leaders, government, NGO workers and development advocates across Sydney were at the conference. Almost 60 community organisations from CALD communities, government departments, universities, local government, non-government and humanitarian organisations were represented. A large number of multicultural service providers, some from Lithgow, Central Coast and Illawarra were also in attendance.
Among the Filipino community organisations represented were: Alliance of Philippine Community Organisations, Inc (APCO), Kapit-bahayan Cooperative Ltd and Philippine Australian Society for Senior Citizens, Inc.
A series of speeches by the Chris Bowen MP for McMahon, CRC Chair Stepan Kerkyasharian, Prof Jack Collins, Federal Minister for Multicultural Affairs and for Sports Kate Lundy and CALD Community leader, Nola Randall-Mohk made up the morning session.
In the afternoon, five concurrent workshops were conducted by selected resource speakers including Dr Amores.
Dr Amores, the only Filipino-Australian People of Australia Ambassador and Founding President of APCO, co-presented with Community Projects Officer of Auburn City Council Adama Kamara, the topic “Enhancing representation of the needs of CALD communities to government and how to collaborate, work together and partnership among CALD communities in order to enhance availability of services, social inclusion and pathways to participation.
Dr Amores discussed “Building Strong Communities: Auburn Small Community organisation Network (ASCON): A Case Study”. She gave an insight into the history of ASCON, its aims, projects and activities, challenges and plans for the future. According to her, ASCON is an ideal model of a group of small and emerging CALD communities operating within the Auburn LGA organised to advocate for the needs of the communities.
Dr Amores who is Greater Western Sydney ZEST 2013 volunteer community leader awardee cited ASCON’s very successful multi-cultural and multi-religious initiatives in AUBURN LGA. It successfully lobbied the government (local, state and federal) to create the Regents Park Community Hub where non-funded voluntary organisations can now have free spaces and facilities for their meetings and other community-related activities. Established in 2008, ASCON also successfully holds the annual traditional/ethnic food fest, “Flavours of Auburn” in consonance with Sydney International Food Festival.
Both APCO and Kapit-bahayan Co-op are active members of ASCON’s steering committee. Ruben Amores, founding president of the leading housing coop Kapit-bahayan was also the Founding Chair of ASCON. Ms Linda Alvarez and another member represented Philippine Australian Society for Senior Citizens, Inc.