Football Queensland (FQ)’s Welcome to the Game program has won the Multicultural Queensland Ambassador category at the Queensland Multicultural Awards, held yesterday at Brisbane’s Hilton Hotel.
The program is a collaboration between community organisations including Welcome to Australia and Multicultural Development Australia (MDA), introducing structured sport for players, coaches, referees and volunteers to newly-arrived communities through events and weekly programs.
The program has worked to eliminate a number of barriers that limit participation, including adapting competition fees and payment structures and organising kick-off times to accommodate teams during Ramadan.
Welcome to the Game has also provided additional support for competition managers, coaches and administrators to assist groups learn and develop the skills they need to operate in a traditional and formal competition.
Queensland’s Multicultural Affairs Minister Stirling Hinchliffe congratulated all winners.
“These eight incredible individuals and organisations are truly inspiring,” Minister Hinchliffe said.
“Their hard work and positive attitude is helping to build a prosperous, fair and harmonious Queensland.”
The Awards’ theme in 2018 was ‘building a prosperous, fair and harmonious Queensland’.
Over 133 award submissions were received overall and FQ was named as a finalist in the Multicultural Queensland Ambassador category in June.
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FULL LIST OF WINNERS
Minister’s Multicultural Award – Townsville City Council (Construction, Maintenance and Operations)
Outstanding Young Achiever – Nkosana Mafico
Outstanding Individual Achiever – Faiza El-Higzi
Community – ‘Belong’ (formerly Acacia Ridge Community Support Incorporated)
Business – Amy Chien-Yu Wang (SBS Radio Mandarin and Embodi Media)
Government (local and state) – Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Education, Training and Skills – Yeronga State High School
Multicultural Queensland Ambassador – Football Queensland (Welcome to the Game)
