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ADC Annual Report 1999/2000
Public Education
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| Sue Kasparak Director, Public Education and Administration |
Objectives:
- Provide people with enough information so that they can recognise the potential for discrimination and harassment in their community.
- Empower people to prevent, confront and resolve discrimination and harassment issues themselves.
- Promote an understanding and acceptance of, and compliance with the Act including the principles of equal opportunity.
- Support the NT Government’s commitment to equal opportunity for all people in the Northern Territory by fostering fairness.
- Consult with organisations, departments, local government, community government bodies and associations to promote the recognition and acceptance of non-discriminatory attitudes, acts and practices.
Strategies
Throughout 1999/2000, the Commission conducted 102 training sessions which involved more than 2000 people. These sessions included:
- Formal training programs
- Workplace training
- Awareness raising sessions and talks
- Community involvement
The environment in which we operate is changing and circumstances have meant that in order to meet our objectives of promoting equal opportunity and preventing discrimination and harassment, we have adopted a policy of charging for training provision. We hope to better achieve these objectives by using the extra resources to increase the range of our education program, employing sessional trainers and producing additional educational material.
The Commission continues to be committed to the principal of free "rights based" training to ensure that the information on rights is available for all people in the Territory.
Formal Training Program
The program is produced biannually and circulated throughout the Territory. The main focus is to provide an introduction to Equal Opportunity or Anti-Discrimination laws and courses are widely available to everyone. Participants range from senior executives of large government agencies to year 7 students, to interpreters and aborigines from remote communities, to owners and managers of private sector business to people with disabilities.
The courses include:
- Introduction to Anti-Discrimination Law
- Harassment –What is it and what you can do about it?
- Recruitment
- Introductory Contact Officer Training
Regional visits are an important component of public education, not only in raising public awareness but also in providing crucial feedback to the Commissioner on issues that may be affecting groups in regional and remote areas. Often the Commissioner has an active role in these visits.
Regional centres where training is available:
- Alice Springs
- Tennant Creek
- Katherine
- Nhulunbuy
- Batchelor
- Borroloola
- Jabiru
- Groote Eylandt
- Tiwi Islands
and other Centres as requested.
Each training session is evaluated and reviewed to ensure that the content meets the needs of the participants.
Workplace Training
There has been a gradual movement towards developing and providing individual workplace training packages as managers better understand their legislative obligations. The packages include:- tailor made training developed specifically to meet organisational and employee needs
- personal assistance in the development of discrimination and harassment policies and grievance handling procedures
- involvement and training of all staff, usually within their workplace, anywhere within the Northern Territory
Awareness Raising Sessions and Talks
These sessions:
- raise awareness of rights and responsibilities of employees, students, customers, and members of the public
- present a range of options for complaint handling
- provide a source of information for people with disabilities, Aboriginies from remote communities, and community service providers
Community Involvement
- Disability Awareness Week and International Day for the Disabled
- Women’s Health Day for NESB
- Humans Rights Week
- Education Careers Expo
- Refugee Week
- Law Week
- NAIDOC
| Months | Area of Training | ||||||||||||
| Work- place |
Disability | Age | Public Sector | Youth | Aboriginal | Education | Formal | Private | Rights Awareness | General Overview | NESB | Cancel- lation |
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| July | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| August | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||||||
| September | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||||
| October | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | |||||||
| November | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||||
| December | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| January | |||||||||||||
| February | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| March | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||||
| April | 10 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| May | 12 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | ||||||
| June | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| TOTAL | 48 | 9 | 4 | 16 | 2 | 13 | 24 | 13 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 28 |
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