Host a Dinner
Hosting a Welcome Dinner is a great pleasure. It is a unique opportunity to welcome new people, from many walks of life, into your home and share a meal together
Hosting a dinner allows you to make new friends and develop your cultural understanding whilst encouraging a sense of belonging and inclusiveness for newly arrived people. It gives you the chance to positively enact your community spirit and help shape Australia’s multicultural values. Sometimes, the dinner will be the first time a newly arrived person has ever been in the house of an established Australian!
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 night. Everyone brings a dish to share which means that there isn’t too much work for you the host and it also gives everyone the opportunity to contribute something from their culture.
Your role as host
As a host, you will provide a communal space within your home to hold the Welcome Dinner. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a large formal dining table; people can eat on couches, sitting on cushions on the floor, lounge chairs, backyard or several tables joined together. As mentioned, you aren’t expected to provide all the food as each guest will bring a dish to share. However, it is the responsibility of the host to provide drinks which is generally water or tea and coffee. There is no alcohol at Welcome Dinners.
On the agreed night (usually they are held on a Friday or Saturday evening around 6:30-9:30pm, or a Saturday or Sunday lunch around 1-3pm, but a weeknight is also possible) the facilitators will come to your house half an hour before the dinner to help prepare the space. Then once guests start to arrive, you’re to welcome them into your home and assist in any necessary food preparation or organisation. Then generally just mix with guest throughout the evening and help the flow of conversation, but most of all enjoy yourself! It is the role of the facilitators to ensure the night runs smoothly and help guide the evening and lead any activities so that you can relax and enjoy the night. You will also be in direct contact with the facilitators’ weeks before the dinner to discuss any ideas or concerns you have and make sure everything is clear.
If this seems like an exciting opportunity that you’d like to undertake, fill in your details in the form below and we will be in contact when we are organising a dinner in your area:
Register your interest to attend a Welcome Dinner in your area
Over 20 people from 9 countries in my living room! This is the best of Australia!
– Simon (host)