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Inala Community HouseJuly 22, 2015July 22, 2015

612 ABC Radio Interview: ICH of Inala

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ABC-612-Brisbane1
On Tuesday (21st July 2015), ICH Managing Director Ross Paul was interviewed by 612 ABC Radio in response to a new report that identified Inala as one of the most disadvantaged suburbs in Brisbane (source).
The report was released yesterday by Catholic advocacy groups Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services Australia.

20150722 - Inala CentreAt Inala Town Centre.

The report’s indicators suggested that Inala was a significantly disadvantaged suburb, and appeared to not show progress over time. However:

  • As a settlement suburb (with a high migrant population like Sudanese and Vietnamese), Inala will always have lower indicator scores as migrants have language barriers which may impact job search for adults, and education attainment for children who have to develop English skills in addition to learning.
  • More specifically, education scores for migrant children will be generally lower as English is not spoken at home, which is the case of more than 50% of primary students in Inala. Further, 10-15% of students at the Inala schools are indigenous. (source: MySchool website)
  • Migration also causes higher rates of unemployment and lower incomes, at least initially.
  • Inala is also a place where people stay and eventually age. Further, many families include migrant grandparents who may be socially isolated due to lack of English skills. Older people also run the risk of social isolation due to physical and mental health issues.

As a result, the solution is for more, not less, funding support for migrants, for healthy aging, for interventions to support migrant and indigenous children in school, and inclusion support services for disabled children in early learning.
ICH will continue to work with Federal State and local government to ensure that funding is a priority, and to partner with other services in and around Inala.
ICH offers Community Settlement Service (for migrants’ job search and daily support), “50 & Better” healthy ageing programs (for elderly), as well as homework club (for disadvantaged youth). We welcome any individual to contact us (info@ich.org.au) and find out how our services can benefit them.
Lastly, Inala also needs attention to certain older infrastructure around the area.
To access the full radio interview, please follow this link (it starts about 45 minutes into the clip).