Past president of Alliance of Philippine Community Organisations (APCO) Dr Cen Amores highlighted the success story of the Auburn Small Community Network (ASCON) during the community forum “Multiculturalism, Inclusion and Participation: Lesson from Research” held at the NSW State Library last 1 October 2013.
More than 200 participants attended, comprising of government and non-government workers, multicultural communities representatives, academics and members of the Ethnic Communities Council (EEC) of NSW, Inc. Macquarie University and Ethnic Communities Council of NSW Inc. hosted the event.
Keynote speakers include: Professor Lucy Taksa, Head of Department of Marketing and Management, Macquarie University who presented ‘ Multiculturalism and Inclusion in the Workplace: Lessons from the Research’ and Professor Ingrid Piller, Department of Applied Linguistics, Macquarie University who talked on ‘ Accent and Inclusion: Lessons from the Research.’
Dr Cen Amores, who currently holds the ex-officio title of People of Australia Ambassador was among the diverse group of panellists and resource persons. . She is also founder of the APCO.
Other panellists are: Neroli Colvin, PhD candidate, Institute of Culture and Society. UWS; Richard Green, Richard Green, Director, NGO Recruitment and Consulting; Bawa Singh Jagdev OAM, Secretary, Sikh Council of Australia ; Professor Andrew Jakubowicz, Co-Director of Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre, UTS;
Nita Mburuja, President-NSW Chapter, African Professionals of Australia; Pino Migliorino, Chair, Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia (FECCA); Yasmi Mohamed, Bilingual Environmental Educator, Ethnic Communities Council of NSW; Charlotta Oberg , Director and Facilitator, PRISMA Cross-Cultural Consultants and Nareen Young, Chief Executive Officer, Diversity Council Australia.
Dr Amores reported on the progress of ASCON a network of small voluntary organisations operating within the Auburn local government area (LGA); achievements of Kapit-bahayan Coop Ltd ‘s cooperative housing project for low and medium-income families and breakthroughs in APCO’s community development initiatives”.
Representing the Filipino community with Dr Amores were Glorina Papaioanou and Cora Perez, APCO directors.