Our History
Post WWII European migration
Co.As.It. past is linked to the Post WWII European migration bringing many Italians to settle in Brisbane.
At the time, as the community was small and Brisbane lacked formal support structures, any crisis would see people taking their problems to the Italian Consulate. The Consulate had established two welfare committees with members from various Italian organisations, businesses and prominent individuals. Both committees were tasked with two objectives, to assist disadvantaged Italian migrants and to promote the teaching of Italian to children of migrants. As committee members were voluntary, the scope of support available was limited to accommodation, employment, interpreting, financial assistance in crises.
By 1973, concerned with the numbers and complexity of welfare cases presenting at the Consulate, the Consul decided it was imperative that a dedicated welfare centre be established.
Italian Welfare Centre Established
The first grant was funded by the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs under the Grant-In-Aid Scheme and started what was to be the Italian Consular Welfare Committee and the Italian Welfare Centre.
Problems in the Italian community were complex and multi-layered. Linguistic problems, culture shock, confusion, isolation, loss of extended family and friends, increasing intra-familial conflict and discrimination all shattered the illusion of a bright new future for the migrants. Not knowing where and what services they could seek from mainstream service agencies, many became depressed, isolated and suffered from other mental health disorders. This was further compounded by mainstream service providers having no idea on how to meet migrant needs. They lacked cultural information, resources, interpreters and more importantly bi-lingual workers.
It takes a village
The Italian Welfare Centre (as we were known at the time) was helping as you would an extended family member. To an Italian, “It takes a village to raise a child” is both literal and metaphorical. The kinship of the extended family includes relatives, friends, neighbours and community that support the social, emotional, physical and spiritual development of a child. This generosity of spirit is what forms a sense of village, an ethos that has been unequivocally maintained by Italians worldwide and still echoes today within Co.As.It.’s programs and services.
New meaning for the lives of Italian Women
In the next decade, strong impacts were made through funded programs that improved the well-being of the Italian community, particularly women and just as strong an impact on mainstream services. It was the women left at home who suffered depression, loneliness and loss of contact, alienated from husbands who went to work and interacted with the wider Australian community but even more so from their children who went to school, learned English and wanted to adopt Australian cultural norms which conflicted with the Italian ones. Implementing support network groups across Brisbane that operated as a village, brought in new meaning to the lives of many Italian women. Social outings, information and education sessions, introduction of playgroups and vacation care programs recreated that sense of belonging that countered the culture shock of losing their extended families here.
Co.As.It. Italian Australian Welfare Association Inc.
In 1986, the Italian Welfare Committee became Co.As.It. Italian Australian Welfare Association Inc. and in the late 1990s, Community Services was added to the name to better reflect its broader multi-cultural and mainstream role.
Today Co.As.It. Community Services has 480 employees more than 5000 clients weekly with aged, disability, community support services and social connectivity.
Despite its dramatic growth, the organisation still retains its original ‘extended family relationship’ model. The village is created every time a new client comes on board and they love it! “We were brought up that way. Our culture is such that we bring people in as our family, so we try to pass that on to clients and our staff,”
Home and Community Care Funding
In 1987, Co.As.It. was successful in gaining Home and Community Care (HACC) funding from the Queensland Department of Health, thus becoming the first culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) organisation to attain aged care funding through the HACC Program, which set it on the path to rapid growth. In the 1990s this was extended to home care packages and in subsequent years a large range of other programs were acquired.
The organisation has been fortunate to have great leadership and caring and committed staff, expanding both service provision and presence within the industry. A number of times it has won recognition and awards for high quality services and excellence in care.
“People stay if they like the culture and environment—and this is known fairly weekly from when they join the organisation. We all believe in the vision of the organisation and in providing a service that is very much needed in the community. We are supporting families in a way you would in a village; extended families, that is our ethos”
Italian Language Centre Division
Co.As.It. has two divisions. The Italian Language Centre, which promotes and teaches the Italian language and culture in primary and secondary schools Queensland wide, it also provides valuable professional development, resources and support to teachers of Italian. The Italian language program was established in 1980, when the Italian government began providing funding to teach Italian in schools. With amazing staff the current ILC now supports teachers and over 25,000 students learning Italian language Queensland wide. It is also highly involved in a number of local and north Qld State language speaking competitions, Italian language proficiency courses and professional development conferences.
Community Services Division
The Community Services division covers the aged, disability and community care services in south-east Queensland from Bribie Island to Tweed Heads. Based in Lutwyche, it has social activity and respite centres in Stafford, Bracken Ridge, Acacia Ridge, Cleveland and the Gold Coast. Three of these facilities were built using own funds raised from many fundraising activities in the community.
Co.As.It. began expanding into other cultural backgrounds about 20 years ago and now with staff able to cater for 50 different languages, Co.As.It. is able to provide support and services to anyone in the community, regardless of CALD background.
Services extended to others
Since our early beginnings we believed in supporting our community but wanted to share that knowledge with other CALD communities and thus we opened our arms to others as we knew how to care and understand where they came from and the challenges they face.
Multi-generational Services
Co.As.It. has cared for many clients for generations, they currently have parents attending playgroup who attended with their mothers as children, clients who came on the numerous social outings in the 80s are now receiving aged services at home and older members who were original clients and now live in aged care homes still receive social activity support in Italian at their aged care home. We also have a number of care staff who are now our clients accessing aged care services or disability services. Our sense of continuity, and continued strong relationships with our clients are just like a village – the sense of which is loved by all clients regardless of their cultural heritage.
The demographic has changed but we will always have the history with the Italian community, and Italian will always be part of us.
Your tailored options
Aged care and NDIS are complex topics but a chat with our coordinator will make it feel less confusing. Benefit from our many years experience getting the best for you or your family. If you would like to chat about what’s possible, please do get in touch.
Call us directly
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Call 1800 262 748