Victorian African Communities Action Plan Employment Brokers Initiative

The Victorian African Communities Action Plan (VACAP) aims to build welcoming communities, improve outcomes and create lasting opportunities for Victorians of African heritage.

VACAP proposes over 250 actions across 6 focus areas:

1. Business
2. Employment
3. Education and training
4. Health and wellbeing
5. Inclusion and empowerment
6. Leadership, cohesion and connection

The VACAP acknowledges the strengths of Victoria’s African communities and supports Victorians of African heritage to own, lead and be part of solutions.

More information can be found on the Empowering African communities in Victoria page.

The Community Employment Brokers Initiative is an action under the Employment focus area of the VACAP.

The proposed initiative will support community organisations with significant reach into Victoria’s African communities to engage and host African community employment brokers for up to two years. Working with the host organisation and JVEN providers, employment brokers will work across key geographic areas to build networks with employers and communities to identify their needs, broker job placements, and provide job seekers with referrals to other services, as required.

The objective of the initiative is to support African Australian job seekers to become job ready and gain and retain employment, contributing to increased social and economic inclusion and assisting Victorian businesses to meet their skills and labour needs.

Community organisations and their employment brokers will be expected to work in partnership with a JVEN provider to provide tailored support to jobseekers of African heritage and develop clear pathways to job readiness and employment.

The initiative will achieve this by:

• supporting community organisations to engage community employment brokers and develop partnerships with JVEN providers to support job seekers of African heritage into long-term employment
• connecting African Australian job seekers in Victoria with existing job networks
• contributing to a more coordinated and streamlined suite of culturally appropriate employment-related services for African job seekers.

Employment brokers and host community organisations will be provided with training and support as needed. Funding provided through the initiative will support costs associated with recruiting and hosting community employment brokers, and with costs associated with partnering with a JVEN provider.

The Victorian Government recognises the unique impacts that COVID-19 has had on the State’s culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, including Victoria’s African communities.

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) is working across Government to ensure that the initiatives implemented under the VACAP align with efforts to support recovery from the pandemic and meet the distinct needs of African jobseekers in this new context.

Funding of up to $125,000 per organisation, will cover:

• the costs associated with employing and hosting an employment broker
• the costs associated with establishing and maintaining a partnership between the host organisation and employment broker, and the JVEN provider to deliver the initiative
• certification and training costs for key staff as needed.

DFFH works with successful applicants to develop an implementation plan as part of the funding agreement.

All projects will be subject to reviews at critical points in the initiative to evaluate performance and outcomes against funding requirements, and continued labour market need for the project to continue.