MEMBER PROFILE

ARMIA Healing the Incurables Pty Ltd is a CALD and refugee community engagement organisation that opened its doors in early 2015, following repeated community requests by Australians from refugee and migrant backgrounds, and has begun a carefully structured program of activities aimed at breaking down the barriers of social isolation, cultural integration and employment within Australian Refugee and CALD communities. It is located in Sunnybank, a suburb of Brisbane, serving clients, refugees and migrants, currently mainly from the south-eastern suburbs, who have been in Australia for more than 5 years.

ARMIA has been established, as a Multicultural Family Support Hub in Sunnybank, Southeast Queensland, to support those refugees and migrants who no longer are part of the Australian Government’s settlement program to be part of the workforce or business community and proudly take their place as acknowledged and valued members of Australian society.

ARMIA has some infrastructure, including a fully funded property, some office equipment, training rooms, around 70 or so volunteers, business professionals willing to give their time, community support and community agency stakeholder relationships.

ARMIA works with those individuals who do not integrate, even with the 5-year Australian government assistance program, which often leads to social isolation. These individuals find it difficult to undertake the simplest of tasks that most Australians take for granted. Education, jobs, cultural differences, mental health, aged care, physical health and social interaction all become barriers and can lead to extreme isolation, restricted work opportunities, welfare dependence and exposure to radicalism and fundamentalism. ARMIA aims to shift fit and skilled individuals from welfare dependency, empowering them to (re)join the workforce and/or entrepreneurship in order to proudly take their place in the community and Australian society. From 2018, ARMIA assist least advantaged mainstream and indigenous people, also a way to promote interactive and participative integration. From 2019, ARMIA assist people with disability through NDIS to live a normal life with their families. ARMIA also assist the elderly through My Aged Care.

ARMIA works around 3 Central Pillars:
– Affordable Housing
– Community Empowerment
– Employment and Entrepreneurship

Within this framework, it utilises five interconnected programs each with multiple activities. These group activities serve as vehicles to enable secondary group therapy and capacity building. The programs are:
– Education
– Business Initiatives
– Health and Wellbeing
– Community Engagement and
– Life Skills and Vocational Training