Testimonials

…resources like the Brisbane Actionweb for Refugee Collaboration are vital, providing myself, and thus the local community, with information about refugee issues … and facilitating their involvement in the activities of their local community

… helps connect people whose work may often make them feel isolated

Barc is facilitating real change and connections between diverse groups and is at a crucial period in its development towards sustainability.

…an emerging culture of refugee support in Brisbane... Barc is an entry point for people into that culture and a catalyst in its development.

I have a small posting on the BARC website and I am impressed with the responses already

BARC enables me to develop an employment generation model with a greater level of authentic partnership from community and support agencies. It has connected me with some key volunteers and people interested in starting similar enterprises.

It has enabled me to network with referring agencies, begin contacting support groups in the community and to develop a good model for vocational training.

BARC has proved a very valuable mechanism for allowing prospective volunteers to become aware of the Centre's activities. 

I like to scan BARC regularly to see what's happening, and to ensure we are not duplicating others' efforts unnecessarily.

Prior to BARC being developed, the task keeping au fait with refugee support events was much messier and more time consuming than it is now.

Financial resource allocation to the sector is minimal to say the least, and the ongoing work relies predominantly on the work of volunteers. The need for the efficient sharing of information resources in this context is imperative. BARC has enabled groups to share information about the work they are doing and the physical resources and projects on which individual organisations are focused. This has enabled essential resource sharing and reduced the doubling up of resource production.

The site is admired by workers nationally and attempts to set up projects based on this model are currently underway in other states.

BARC!…gives participating network members the needed background knowledge to assist them in their work with asylum seekers and refugees, and promotes our network and its activities to a wider audience, increasing public awareness and the potential for recruiting volunteers.

BARC! is like a one-stop shop where one could park for free and do shopping in one location thus saving on fuel/time/energy.

We see a huge potential in the BARC! idea

It is great to have the link with all the other refugee groups, and to be able to put things on the BARC website and know it will go to so many other groups who may be able to assist.

The collaboration thing is really good and we can all share ideas – things that have worked, things that haven’t.

many members access the site regularly to keep informed of various events, and networking opportunities with other pro-refugee groups.

BARC has been an immeasurably useful tool to our group.

The sources of information and their efficient distribution is commendable, and highly circulated & acted upon by both members and extended networks of other interested people.

BARC furthers the community development principles of working collectively, pooling resources, ideas, energy, passion

loss is that it will sadly fragment the network of refugee groups

BARC is not only about the wonderful website and resources etc, it is founded on the experience, compassion, vast networking and relationship building that the team behind BARC so generously provide. This is invaluable, and seemingly very difficult to find elsewhere.

BARC is vitally important for the future effectiveness of united, collaborative pro-refugee activities.

BARC is an absolutely fantastic web site. I use it mostly as a resource. As a small community group running on the steam of volunteer time BARC is a great way to keep up with what is happening. It is one stop for contacting other Refugee Support Groups and refugee associated organisations, a way of seeing what people are up to and what they have done so we don't waste time duplicating. It is also a way of giving strength to small groups by allowing them to join with others for advocacy.

Resources that BARC provides, such as Refugee Support Kit have served PRASS well. If BARC were to disapear it would leave a hole and would make life very difficult. Brisbane needs BARC!

BARC is an invaluable resource.

I hope BARC continues… It's servicing a need and it's a great source of information.

Although very new, BARC! has already proved to be an extremely valuable resource for this organisation. For example, I recently accessed BARC! and learnt of a Photographic Exhibition, "Images of Us" done by the Eritrean, Ethiopian, Somali and Sudanese communities of Brisbane. In Toowoomba I work with a large group of Dinka people from Southern Sudan. We organised a bus trip to Brisbane to view the exhibition and assisted in facilitating the exhibition touring to our local Cobb and Co Museum. We had a fabulous evening launching "Images of us" where we linked local Dinka women with the local women from the Zonta club. This raised much-needed funds for community activities and developed greater networks. There was a delightful moment at the launch where one elderly Dinka woman recognised one of the women in the images as someone she had known in Sudan, but had not been aware that the woman was now living in Brisbane.

I am now getting calls from all over Australia as a result of the BARC promotion. This has been a fantastic way of distributing the resources with no cost to my project budget.

I believe without BARC-:

1. Volunteer help needed advertisements would get very little attention

2. Planned fundraiser activities would clash, lack any coordination and would get very limited publicity

3. Important events and forums would have very limited promotion

4. New interested people to the sector would find it extremely difficult to get an overview of how, what and when the sector operates.

I find the Barc website very beneficial for keeping updated on events

the website allows more autonomy for clients seeking information and allows MFO to work more immediately and directly in offering support to clients. The website also allows clients to discover for themselves the range of support services available and gives them the opportunity to become involved in these groups themselves.

Being able to access a website which deals with their concerns, speaks to their needs, and allows them access to people in similar circumstances is extremely empowering to people who experience disempowerment on a daily basis. Being able to access up to date information relating to services of refugees is extremely empowering to those of us who work on behalf of asylum seekers.

As a support service to refugees we feel that what Barc offers is an extremely valuable resource, not only for service providers such as ourselves but also to the wider community most especially refugees themselves. Barc is a unique and innovative site

We have found the BARC web site an incredibly useful … to the point where it is almost indispensable.

the project has been consistently excellently managed as a collaboration in the Brisbane refugee advocacy community.

There exists a few other refugee oriented sites in Queensland, but BARC is unique in what it is able to offer as a non-organisation specific site. This is very important.

We are constantly referring new people interested in getting involved in Refugee support and the movement to the BARC site

I am ever finding ways that BARC helps me in my numerous campaigning activities.

…if BARC would cease we would loose the easy access to communicate with other organizations and small groups. It would take an incredible time and effort to find and put together all the essential resources and information. We would miss out on many opportunities, which would be available for organization like ours.

BARC! has great potential. There is a common purpose shared by all of the agencies to help those in need.

RASSQ members regularly use the site in order to assist in our information sharing and networking activities.

…the support, networking opportunities and rich resource base which BARC! provides

Many of the people who require this level of assistance would be severely disadvantaged without the additional support and resources offered by BARC!