What the Wider Community Says About the Centre
“Dar Al Awda Wendel Street Community Centre has been providing support and encouragement to the people of Moreland since 1988. Throughout this time, dedicated volunteers, individuals, the Committee of Management and Scouts leaders have responded to people’s needs with sensitivity and compassion”.
Carlo Carli / Former MP for Coburg
“Wendel Street Community Centre seeks to walk alongside newly arrived people as they piece together their existence and regain control of their lives in a new country”.
Dr Tannous Aoun
Former Counsel General of Lebanon in Victoria
“Moreland Council is proud of the hard work and dedication of those responsible for this Centre and its history of supporting young people. You have now achieved the realisation of a dream by creating this wonderful Centre. For Council then, this Centre is a wonderful example of how people get together in our community under the banner of “One Community, Proudly Diverse”.
Cr Stella Kyriofillidis
Former Mayor of Moreland City Council
“This Centre has proud history as a Centre for Culture within the Arabic Speaking Community and it is great to see it brought to life again. This proud history is reflected by the fact that the Centre is having its ten-year anniversary. In that time, it has provided benefit to thousands of members of the Arabic speaking Community and in turn to the community in which they live.
Melbourne Northern Suburbs have a strong multicultural tradition. As each new nationality has arrived they have made themselves at home, establishing their own traditions and facilities. In this case, the Arabic speaking Community has done this project to benefit all Communities.
New, courtesy of the centenary program and the activism of those who run the Centre it shall continue to nurture our young people and provide service to the community”.
Kelvin Thomson / Former MHR for Wills
“As you would all be aware, Brunswick and its surrounding local area has an enormous wealth. This wealth is its residents, which derive from a variety of cultural, linguistically and religious backgrounds. The Arabic community is one of these and has to date, further enriched the cultural mosaic that is Brunswick. The Centre is yet another contribution of this mosaic”.
Stefan Romaniw
Former Chairperson of the Victorian Multicultural Commission
“We are giving life to our principles of inclusion and acceptance, we are saying that all Australians can live the Australian dream and achieve great things in the Australian Community”.
Anthony Helou JP / Former Mayor
The Centre is a busy place with children, adults, elderly citizens, women’s groups and youth. Many of the parents are new immigrants struggling to establish themselves in a new life and new country. Families value the centre as a place where their children may begin to understand the world around them and share cultural values.
One mother says “What is important to people at the centre is quality care, and a learning environment built around the developmental needs our youth and simply a place where children may laugh and play amongst friends”.
The volunteers and Committee of Management work very hard to provide a safe environment of young people at any given time. Our work includes helping people providing advice and understandable, useable information relating to advocacy, personal development leading to appropriate behaviour and life skills.
We cannot claim full credit for the success of the centre without the people and the volunteers. The journey can only be made in partnership and those who come to us, or those whom we go to.
Wendel Street Community Centre is a non-religious and non political group, which will never be hijacked by religion or politics. The Centre is a home away from home. Parents and youth and our service providers need to work together with a lot of patience and tolerance with the option of resources and services available to them to look forward to a brighter future.
Wendel Street Community Centre promotes harmony and provides access and equity to the community. It is a centre with a vision, at a time when schools tend to teach more and more but educate less and less, at a time, when parents find it more and more difficult to be educators of their children.
At a time, when consumer society gives a price to everything but value to nothing, Wendel Street Community Centre continues to be a place entirely dedicated to the comprehensive development of young persons, physically, intellectually, morally, socially and spiritually.
The Dar Al Awda Wendel Street Community has for over 32 years, built an outstanding reputation as an innovative and progressive organization that has served and continues to serve the community with integrity and distinction.
As a community organization, we managed to reach out to many thousands of Australian Lebanese, Arabic speaking who have benefited tremendously from the many programs and services that have been provided by the Centre.
Many of these programs have a focus on direct and indirect service delivery. Which includes information, seminars, support and referrals.
Dar Al Awda Community Centre is a leading Australian/Arabic speaking community service agency in Melbourne.
Our statement of purpose is to empower members of the Australian/Arabic speaking community to reach their full potential. This will be achieved by undertaking service provision, advocacy, policy development and research in an innovative, culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.
We, with the rest of Committee of the Management and all the present and future beneficiaries of these great facilities would like to thank you in advance for your assistance, support and encouragement.
Community of Management