Our first webinar that kick started the series looked at systems effect mapping with multicultural communities.

We started by looking at what systems thinking is, and found that it is the concept of understanding the complex nature of social problems and their causes.

The key insights from webinar included:

• A person’s cultural identity is a stronger determinant of the barriers and enablers of health and wellbeing than what disease they have.

• Long-term change requires systems thinking: systems thinking allows for the complexity of social problems, ensuring interventions are targeted at the most powerful leverage points for ripple-effect.

• Collaboration is crucial: systems-level change is impossible to implement for one organization. It requires collective action and genuine collaboration.

• Communities are the experts: project design needs to be centred around the lived experience of the local community.

Overall the webinar was a powerful demonstration of the influence of systemic impacts on the health and wellbeing of people and communities and how we can design our interventions to be most impactful.

The second webinar of the series looked at the topic of delivering a Multicultural Connect Line an innovative telehealth service.

We presented the key components of the line:

• Community engagement strategy

• Extensive targeted community outreach

• Data collection systems

• State wide 1300 number for navigation and system support for practical and mental health.

The key learnings to date from our Multicultural Connect Line include:

• Line is needs based, non-stigmatising

• Helpline staff: mix of culturally competent & multilingual nursing & allied health staff•

• Easy access to interpreters/bilingual staff is essential

• Need a clear pathway & central point of contact

• Grass roots & community outreach is essential

• Co-design, testing translations & promo messaging

• Callers have multiple issues & require significant follow up

• Most challenging are temporary residents

• Service providers from other agencies are contacting the MCL on behalf of their clients, more flexibility being needs based

• State-wide approach has highlighted gaps around the State

The webinar demonstrated the significant value of telehealth for multicultural communities, the line’s capability to fill gaps in multicultural health services and the importance of cultural capability in all aspects of service design.

The third webinar of the series which excitingly fell on our 10th birthday, focused on the topic social impact measurement. We began with looking at the theory of change and what this entails. The theory of changes explains how activities are understood to produce a series of results that contribute to achieving the final intended impacts and that it can be developed for any level of intervention – an event, a project, a programme, a policy, a strategy or an organization.

Next, we looked at social impact frameworks and how they provide a context for socially focused organisations to deliver on their mission.

Within World Wellness Group, our social impact framework allows us to:

• Identify barriers

• Tackle barriers

• Deliver outputs and outcomes

• Join the dots to improve the system

• Measure our impact as we go

From here we then reflected on what we have learnt about out impact, and found that we can demonstrate a positive impact on accessibility, cultural safety and wellbeing. We also looked at the power of data and determined some key insights including:

• Profiling our clients: pandemic highlighted absence of shared data

• Identifying client needs to refine services and allocate resources

• Advocacy and representation: data is an evidence base

• Informs overall strategy: data provides insights to inform service design and location etc.

The webinar emphasised the importance of incorporating a social impact framework within an organisation, and moreover celebrated our birthday and 10th year of being at forefront of addressing health inequity.

Our final webinar of the series covered the topic of multicultural lived experience.

We started by looking at our own voices in World Wellness Group, highlighting our staff and their lived experiences. We moved onto looking at our Multicultural Peer Support Workers (MPSW), who are a key feature and resource for bringing lived experience at World Wellness Group. Our MPSW workers focus on lived experiences; therapeutic engagement; culturally appropriate engagement; cultural and language support and cultural tailoring.

We found the effectiveness of our workers allows and develops:

• Trust, connection and comfort

• Confidence

• Improved therapeutic engagement

• Debriefing and support

by incorporating a multicultural lived experience framework, we found our niche and key points of differentiation which include:

• Shared experiences

• Cultural safety

• Social determinants approach

We also unpacked the difference between multicultural lived experience and generic lived experience. During this webinar we found the importance of embedding lived experience, and how this can build culturally appropriate services.