Participating in a welcome dinner is a truly humbling experience that inspires new hope in humanity

Sharing stories of our food

People from all across the world come together over a shared meal and create a space for conversation around the aspects of life where our stories intersect and shared dreams are realised. Welcome Dinners are an accessible and enjoyable platform to enhance your social connections, enable positive community participation and spark friendships with people from diverse cultures who live in your community.

HOW THE DINNERS WORK

The average dinner will have in attendance eight established Australians together with eight newly arrived people, as well as a two trained facilitators who will assist each of the parties to organise the dinner and support them on the day. Both established Australians, as well as new migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and international students, are welcome to come. Everyone brings a dish to share which means that there isn’t too much work for the host and it also gives everyone the opportunity to contribute something to the feast!

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO AS A PARTICIPANT

Once you have registered below, you’ll be sent an email when there is an upcoming dinner in your area. As the dinners depend on a mixed number of people, it may take time for an event to occur in your area so we ask that you please be patient.

When there is the right amount of people for a dinner we’ll notify you of the place, date and time. After confirming your attendance, all you have to do is come to the selected house on that day with a plate of food (perhaps a traditional dish from your culture), your smile and an open heart. You will be welcomed into the home of the host and given a brief outline of the Welcome Dinner Project and what to expect. There will be two facilitators who will guide the activities throughout the dinner, and give you an opportunity to share your experience at the end.

The Welcome Dinner Project celebrates our commonality, so don’t worry if you are not yet able to communicate well in English. The purpose of Welcome Dinners is to come together in spite of barriers such as language, and learn to connect and exchange in other ways. For example: sharing stories by looking at photos from your phone.

As you may initially feel a little shy or nervous on the night, we’ve outlined examples of some conversation starters:
– Ask people to name one thing they love about their local area, one interesting activity or favourite thing they have done since arriving in Australia.
– Ask people to talk about their hobbies / interests / traditions of their culture etc
– Ask people what their hopes and dreams are for the future

The Welcome Dinner Project sets a few conversation guidelines to make sure everyone is going to be safe – please do not ask people how they came to Australia or where they work. If someone chooses to share that information that is absolutely fine, but please don’t ask questions like this that may make someone feel uncomfortable.

To register to participate in a Welcome Dinner in your area, please fill in the form below: