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Our Organisation
We are a national, CALD and refugee-led not-for-profit organisation working across Australia to strengthen social cohesion through dialogue, education and community-led initiatives. We build spaces for genuine engagement across difference, supporting communities to reduce harm, foster mutual understanding and develop the skills needed for respectful, resilient and inclusive relationships.
Our Directors
“When we work together, our voices rise above censorship, giving others courage to speak out. That’s when change starts.
We’ve seen it happen.”
Azin Naghibi
Director - Iranian Community & CALD Engagement
“Stories like our Yazidi refugee experience cut through the noise; they create genuine curiosity and plant seeds of doubt for any audience.”
Nada Ali
Director - Yazidi Youth Engagement
“Participating in dialogue changes everyone involved; opens our mind, shifts perceptions. It's how we evolve.”
Simonne Whine
Director - Program Delivery & Jewish Community Liaison
"Social cohesion is everyones responsibility, and everyone can contribute. Lived experience leads the way, and everyone plays a part."
Roz Mendelle
Director - Strategic Communications and Outreach
"Minorities and marginalised groups understand how crucial cohesion is for survival, and for fighting for human rights and equality."
Yashvi Shah
Director - Legal Advisory & Human Rights
Our Values
We believe in the power of genuine engagement across difference. Rather than prescribing top-down solutions, we create the spaces, tools and platforms for communities to co-design meaningful change. Our values centre on respectful dialogue, humanising difference and building the skills needed for honest conversations, healthy boundaries and social cohesion. We are committed to fostering connection across diverse groups and empowering people to play an active role in shaping a more cohesive Australia
Stay in the loop.
Programs
Lived experience spokespeople leading cultural activities, panels, webinars and discussions about conflict, trauma, connection and cohesion.
Incredible stories that are rarely heard are placed at the forefront, uniting diverse communities and showing a new way forward to reducing intolerance, preventing harm and addressing the divisions in our society.
1
Knowing how to have difficult conversations is key in any type of engagement.
Multicultural communities, especially with trauma or conflict ongoing, struggle to connect or manage confrontations. We are rolling out professionally-led workshops & discussion events to practice and hone these skills, to create connection and understanding and prevent race/faith based harm.
2
A community-led archive and digital museum of Jewish lived experiences in Australia since 7/10/2023. This pioneering project demonstrates the spillover effect of antisemitism; showing how intolerance against one community threatens cohesion for all Australians.
Our first archive focuses on the Jewish Australian experience, with plans to expand to other minority communities facing prejudice and erasure. Each archive centres survivor voices and lived experience, building understanding through stories that connect us across difference.
3
Stalls and booths in public spaces, cultural events, fairs and gatherings. The stalls will display shared cultural heritage and spark important and courageous conversations.
Led by lived experience spokespeople and multicultural/refugee community members, the stalls will be a focal point for dialogue and critical thinking.
4
FAQ's
A few key differences: We're led by people with lived experience of displacement, conflict, and marginalisation; not external consultants, politicians or academics. Our programs are co-designed with the communities we serve, not imposed from above. We use evidence and data to measure impact, not just good intentions. And we prioritise genuine dialogue over performative virtue—we're interested in real relationships and honest conversations, not box-ticking exercises.
Social cohesion is the capacity of communities to navigate difference, make decisions together in crisis, and maintain mutual respect across diverse backgrounds. Real cohesion isn't about agreement; it's about connection despite difference. It's built through genuine dialogue, understanding lived experiences, and developing skills for difficult conversations with respect and healthy boundaries.
Australia's biggest challenges, like cost of living, housing affordability, and environment, can only be solved with cohesion. Without it, we fragment into competing groups, unable to build the collective will needed for complex problems. Cohesion is everyone's shared responsibility, not just multicultural communities. As Minister Anne Aly stated, placing this burden solely on multicultural communities has led to unfair expectations. That's why the Australian Cohesion Forum programs engage broad, diverse audiences.
We're organisationally apolitical, meaning we don't advocate for parties, candidates, or geopolitical groups. But we recognise that politics can be a key part of lived experience. Our programs create space to discuss difficult topics, including those with political dimensions, with openness, respect, and healthy boundaries. The goal isn't agreement; it's understanding across difference. Our red lines are drawn at incitement to violence, discrimination and any speech that is said or written with intent to harm or intimidate.
As an organisation, we don't promote positions on international conflicts. Our focus is on how global conflicts affect Australians here and now, and how we build understanding and resilience among people with different perspectives and lived experiences. When people participate in this kind of work, it can become politicised, but it also inevitably leads to all participants changing or evolving, developing stronger communication skills and coping mechanisms.
We're a multicultural organisation with diverse leadership including Yazidi, Iranian, Jewish, and other voices. As we engage with more communities and groups, our committees, programs and SME's expand, and we hope to include as many unique voices and cultures as possible over time. For example, our first projects focus on the Yazidi survivors who have resettled in Australia since 2015, and on Jewish Australian experiences post-Oct 7 as part of our broader mission to document and learn from minority community experiences across Australia.
Yes! We need volunteers for event facilitation, stalls, storytelling projects, translation, research, and youth mentorship. Training is provided. Contact us at info@cohesion.org.au.
Volunteer with the Forum
Help build real cohesion where it matters most.
We need:
Event facilitators for dialogue circles and panel discussions, community connectors to help reach diverse audiences, storytellers and archivists to document lived experiences, organisers for public stalls and cultural events... And more.
No prior experience required; just curiosity, empathy, and willingness to learn. Training provided.
Get in touch
Host a Cohesion Forum event in your city, inquire about our programs, invite our lived-experience speakers, or start a local project with our help.
Reach out and we will get back to you to discuss.
info@cohesion.org.au
Volunteer Hubs:
Brisbane | Melbourne | Sydney | Adelaide
