The Victorian Multicultural Commission is supporting emergency service providers to help collate a list of volunteers from different multicultural communities across Victoria to be on standby to record emergency messages if needed.
Did you know that 26 per cent of Victorians do not speak English at home? Of these people, 4.5 per cent describe their ability to speak English as 'not well' or 'not at all'.
This is a big barrier for many Victorians to understand and access vital information in times of an emergency.
If you speak another language, or know someone who does and are interested in joining this list, please complete the Victorian Multicultural Commission survey.
What will it mean if you are on this list?
If there's an emergency in your region, you may be contacted to help produce an emergency response message. This is not a list where you will be contacted all the time, it is only during times of crisis.
You can also identity if you would be available to share messages to encourage community members to prepare for crises. This means that CFA or other emergency services providers such as SES, may contact you to pass on localised messages about how to prepare.
This role is voluntary. You are not required to be available 24/7 to be included on this list. Agencies will work with you and your availability.
Members can complete the Victorian Multicultural Commission survey online. Members can also circulate this to their contacts to get as many people as possible on this list.
You will not be asked to go anywhere near a fire, flood, storm or any other emergency. This is just to support getting messages to people in the community and help the response effort.
