Bulletin

Issue: March 2004

People

Matchmaking - Shepparton style

Historically, the matchmaker was a respected, even revered figure whose activities were vital to both personal and social needs within a community.

The Shepparton community has a matchmaker of a different kind, although still respected. She is Ms Jenni Goodwin who in December 2003 completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at La Trobe University's Shepparton campus.

Her role is important to the welfare of many individuals in the large immigrant and refugee community-including around 2000 Iraqis-who live in the area and provide much of the labour in busy local orchards, farms and canneries.

Her 'matchmaking' is to 'match' up to 200 local volunteer English language tutors with individual non-English speaking migrants and refugees. Volunteers not only help migrants to learn English but frequently become close personal friends, providing advice about the multi-tude of needs to get by in our community, such as filling out Centrelink forms, dealing with schools, doctors and hospitals as well as being a friend when needed.

'Working full time in this field was never in my mind when I enrolled for the degree course four years ago,' says Ms Goodwin who had worked in a range of occupations in local canneries and other businesses before enrolling as a mature age student for the degree. Now she has a full time job selecting and training volunteer tutors, matching them to individual migrants, and then supporting and advising them in their work and monitoring the results.

'The course raised my awareness of a vital need within my own local community. I studied units covering Islam, sociology and history and others relevant to community issues and found these subjects helped me to relate to what I was observing around me,' Ms Goodwin said.

'As part of the sociology unit, I worked with three other students and my lecturer, Dr Mary-Jo Fortuna, on a presentation about immigration and refugees. While researching this I learned of the Volunteer Tutor Program being run by Goulburn Ovens TAFE in partnership with AMES. I found there is a great need in the Goulburn Valley as well as elsewhere in Australia, for migrants and refugees to be made welcome and to learn survival English. So I became a volunteer while still studying,' she said.

At that time the organisation of the English language tutors and matching them to suitable migrants was being run on a part-time basis. Ms Goodwin was offered the position of Coordinator of the Volunteer Tutor Program while finishing her final year at La Trobe. The program developed so rapidly in the last two years that the job of Coordinator of the Volunteer Tutor Program became a full time for Ms Goodwin late in 2003.

'Selecting and training volunteer English language tutors is quite a complex process because each volunteer must be properly 'matched' with each migrant. Because of the length and closeness of the association between tutor and migrant, they must be compatible.

'Some migrants and refugees have been tortured or otherwise traumatised by their experiences in their home countries and in detention centres in Australia. The majority are Moslems, many of whom understandably find difficulty adapting to life in a modern western society.

'Happily there is no shortage of volunteers to help them. Part of my job is to organise training ses-sions which comprises three hours a week over five weeks held at Goulburn Ovens Insti-tute of TAFE.

'Training includes providing a variety of strategies such as learning to deal with people who have been through serious traumas. During the training period I must decide on the student with whom each tutor will be matched, and vice versa. Age, gender, religion, race and social aspects play a big part in matching.

'Volunteers come from all walks of life and include retired teachers, university students, mothers, senior citizens as well as migrants who have been here for some time. The only qualification is to speak, read and write English and want to help.' •

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