Cai Ruggles from Hornsby Council (in Sydney) assisted us with the initiative of establishing a multicultural group for the Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai Council areas in Sydney’s Northern suburbs.

The purpose was to leverage the potential of the smaller ethnic community groups working to assist new and established migrants, and to increase intercultural collaboration and cultural diversity awareness and understanding.

A range of community leaders from India, China, Korea, Iran, Taiwan, Russia and Latin American countries came together to work collaboratively and learn from each other.

Over the past 20 years, MICS has assisted newly arrived migrants, organised a series of events ranging from inter-country football games, street performances, first aid courses, training workshops and multicultural film events. MICS has also received financial support through Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai Council Grant schemes, as well as from Multicultural NSW with a total value of over $70,000.

Currently MICS is very privileged to be sponsored and supported by Community Migrant Resource Centre through Hornsby Shire Council and Ku-ring-gai Council.

Our objectives are:

To support migrants in their adjustment to their new Australian environment.

To promote cultural unity and tolerance, enhance awareness of the diverse nature of the different communities and develop mutual understanding by cultural exchanges and cultural learning activities, allowing community members to work together to promote their cultures and traditions to the wider community.

To provide support for migrant communities to build bridges with the local community –to interact across cultural boundaries, understand and appreciate their differences, explore ways of living together in the Australian community.