Designing programs that have the intention of improving social cohesion sounds easy but often it isn't. There are a lot of threads to pull together - Council corporate plans and strategies, policies; strategies and action plans of other teams such as sport and rec, lifelong learning, multicultural framework, economic development and the RAP; community need for intersectional programs and services that take into account a 'whole' person, not only their cultural or faith identity. So, how do you balance all of these to achieve your goal of greater positive resident interaction? How do you design and deliver programs that meaningfully bring together people who are not like each other? How do you ensure the programs you design don't add to the problem of creating cultural silos? Sometimes well-meaning programs have the effect of keeping people apart and contained in their own cultural, language or faith groups. How can you create, at every possible opportunity, programs that deliberately bring together people born overseas, people born in Australia and First Nations' peoples? This isn't only a question for social policy, multicultural, diversity or inclusion teams but also for economic development, infrastructure planning, libraries, corporate planning, environment, sport and rec, health and customer services. Mosaic: Intercultural Solutions designs tailored coaching which supports you to design and deliver programs that are inclusive, accessible and reflective of the diverse needs and perspectives of your community. We will challenge your thinking, help you construct the basis for intercultural individual, family, group and community-level exchange which improves your ability to create programs that act as links between intersections of your community. We will help you to view, design and deliver your programs through an intercultural lens to achieve your goal of delivering services that bring residents together, not keep them apart. Good intercultural service delivery is based on good intercultural program design which critical to maximise social inclusion and cohesion and positively impact on the day to day lives of all people in your community. Good intercultural service delivery comes naturally to some but not to all. If you don't feel confident to work in a manner which brings together people from different cultural, faith, gender, language, sexualities, abilities our practice coaching and training programs will assist you. We offer Chatham House Rules and non-judgemental coaching - safe spaces for individual or groups to express their values and beliefs about policy development, intercultural solutions and opportunities. HOW IS INTERCULTURAL COACHING OFFERED? Online individual coaching is available for 6, 9 or 12 sessions. Online group coaching is limited to 5 members from different Councils and is available for 6 sessions. Group coaching is also available to teams within one Council. In person coaching can be offered. A lot of consultants will tell you they are experts in intercultural practice and program design. While they may have some experience, the only person in Australia with more than 20 years of intercultural practice and policy design experience and internationally recognised expertise is Lynda Ford. WHO CAN I CONTACT? For more information, please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

Create connected futures for residents of your community by developing policies and principles which meaningfully and deliberately bring people together. Being part of Mosaic: Intercultural Solutions coaching means you receive tailored guidance which supports you to create and write policies which are inclusive, equitable, and reflective of the diverse needs and perspectives of your community. Good intercultural policy is critical to maximise social inclusion and cohesion and positively impact on the day to day lives of all people in your community. How do you create policies that facilitate bringing together people who are not like each other? How do you ensure the programs you design don't add to the problem of creating cultural silos? Reviews of many Council policies reveal outcomes which keep people from various ethnic communities apart and almost never ensure that people born overseas are facilitated to mix and create friendships with First Nations Peoples or Australian-born people. For example, multicultural policies in Council's aged care programs that provide activities to one group of people on one day, another group of people on another day without any opportunity for those people to ever come together to get to know each other and learn from each other. How can you create, at every possible opportunity, programs that deliberately bring together people born overseas, people born in Australia and First Nations' peoples? This isn't only a question for social policy, multicultural, diversity or inclusion teams but also for economic development, infrastructure planning, libraries, corporate planning, environment, sport and rec, health and customer services. Mosaic: Intercultural Solutions coaching means you receive tailored mentoring which supports you to design and deliver programs that are inclusive, accessible and reflective of the diverse needs and perspectives of your community. We will challenge your thinking, help you construct the basis for intercultural individual, family, group and community-level exchange which improves your ability to create programs that act as links between intersections of your community. We will help you to view, design and deliver your policies through an intercultural lens to achieve your goal of delivering services that bring residents together, not keep them apart. Good intercultural policy construction is based on good intercultural consultation externally but also within Council which are critical to maximising social inclusion and cohesion and positively impact on the day to day lives of all people in your community. Every team in a Council has a role to play. Good intercultural policy creation comes naturally to some but not to all. If you don't feel confident to work in a manner which brings together people from different cultural, faith, gender, language, sexualities, abilities in order for yout ocreate a range of policies, our coaching and training programs will assist you. We offer Chatham House Rules and non-judgemental coaching - safe spaces for individual or groups to express their values and beliefs about policy development, intercultural solutions and opportunities. We will challenge your thinking, help you construct the basis for intercultural policies which reflect your municipality and improve your ability to apply intercultural principles to any policy you take on. HOW IS INTERCULTURAL COACHING OFFERED? Online individual coaching is available for 6, 9 or 12 sessions. Online group coaching is limited to 5 members from different Councils and is available for 6 sessions. Group coaching is also available to teams within one Council. In person coaching can be offered. A lot of consultants will tell you they are experts in intercultural policy design. While they may have significant experience in policy creation, the only person in Australis with internationally recognised expertise in intercultural policy is Lynda Ford. WHO CAN I CONTACT? For more information, please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

One of the most complex roles in a council is the role of an elected member. Managing often diverging resident needs and expectations for people in your ward; making decisions in the best interests of all residents across the council area; legal and governance requirements; the hundreds of pages of reading needed to make decisions; balancing your public and private life and public opinions with private thoughts and all of this for very little money. It's a regularly lonely, labour of love 'job' that comes with knowing you're making a difference in your community but with a public profile that opens you to abuse and negativity regardless of your beliefs. Individual coaching will help you work through the stress of managing the complexities of diversity in your decision-making, public profile and community involvement. We offer Chatham House Rules, non-judgemental coaching and safe spaces for individual or group discussion for elected members who want to have frank conversations and discuss their perspectives, constraints and opportunities to make more informed and considered decisions for all residents of their communities. HOW IS INTERCULTURAL COACHING OFFERED? Online individual coaching is available for 6, 9 or 12 sessions. Online group coaching is limited to 5 members from different Councils and is available for 6 sessions. Group coaching is also available to teams within one Council. In person coaching can be offered. A lot of consultants will tell you they are experts in intercultural practice and program design. While they may have some experience, the only person in Australia with more than 30 years of intercultural practice and policy design experience and internationally recognised expertise is Lynda Ford. WHO CAN I CONTACT? For more information, please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

Managers and other executives are increasingly called upon for solutions to managing the competing demands for resources and services in our multicultural society. However, managing the demands, expectations and complexity of cultural, faith and language diversity - staff; policy creation and implementation; practice ethics and values; Council corporate reporting; relationships inside and outside Council - to create better social outcomes is difficult and at times, exhausting. We offer non-judgemental coaching - safe spaces for individual or group discussion about values, beliefs, practices, solutions and opportunities to have even greater impact on social inclusion for your team in your workplace and your community. We offer Chatham House Rules, non-judgemental mentoring and safe spaces for individual or group discussion for managers who want to have frank conversations and discuss their diverse staff management perspectives, constraints and opportunities to make better decisions for all residents of their communities. HOW IS INTERCULTURAL COACHING OFFERED? Online individual coaching is available for 6, 9 or 12 sessions. Online group coaching is limited to 5 members from different Councils and is available for 6 sessions. Group coaching is also available to teams within one Council. In person coaching can be offered. A lot of consultants will tell you they are experts in intercultural practice and program design. While they may have some experience, the only person in Australia with more than 30 years of intercultural practice and policy design experience and internationally recognised expertise is Lynda Ford. WHO CAN I CONTACT? For more information, please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

Most Council policies, strategies and action plans were written from a multicultural perspective but, starting with the end in mind, an intercultural policy/strategy/action plan/framework describes how all members of your community will be included and connected from the very beginning of creating a policy or designing a program. Who do you see as part of your multicultural policy? Who do your residents see as part of your multicultural policy? Let's face it, 'multicultural' is often considered to be about people born overseas and a multicultural policy rarely incorporates strategies to create connections between the three parts of Australian society: people born in Australia (particularly 3rd + generation), First Nations peoples AND people born overseas. What is the actual, practical, ‘bringing people together’ relationship between your multicultural policy/strategy/action plan/framework and your Council’s RAP? If the purpose of these documents is to enhance community cohesion, how can cohesion occur without an explicit requirement for interaction between First Nations peoples and people born overseas? If there isn’t interaction facilitated between the two strategies, how can there be a relationship facilitated between two groups – our four groups or one hundred groups? If there is no explicit intent within these documents to bring together people born overseas with First Nations peoples then when will this occur? Who will facilitate it? If we agree that most multicultural policy/strategy/action plan/frameworks are written with overseas-born people in mind and RAP’s are primarily for First Nations’ people, where do Australian-born people particularly from European backgrounds and especially those whose grandparents or great-grandparents were born overseas, fit into the equation? Australia consists of three groups of people – people born overseas, people born in Australia and First Nations people (who may or may not have been born in Australia). If multicultural plans are written for people born overseas and RAP’s are written for First Nations’ peoples, how are relationships developed with the third group which is often the group most needing to be engaged to reduce feelings of disengagement and prejudice in order to find intercultural solutions to community opportunities and challenges? How can a cohesive community be created if people don’t know each other and there is no facilitation at the local level for interaction between people born in Australia, people born overseas and First Nations peoples. How can local economies grow and businesses grow their markets if there is no facilitation of active networks between businesses owned by people born overseas, born in Australia and First Nations peoples. How can sporting facilities be used and managed by people from as many cultural backgrounds as possible if there are no strategies to increase diversity by bringing together people people born overseas, born in Australia and First Nations people to share facilities? We can review your existing publications across Council and help adapt them for intercultural outcomes until an intercultural policy, plan or strategy can be created or new economic development or other policies can incorporate intercultural strategies to bring out the best in the people they work with. We can also review your community engagement process for drafting intercultural policy, strategy or action plans, assisting to create intercultural recommendations or reviewing prior to going to print. Remember that an intercultural strategy is not a multicultural strategy with a different name! Intercultural strategies and plans and policies across Council using an intercultural lens ensures those plans will be fit-for-future in your community. We will also review other council policies and publications such as Council and Corporate plans, disability, libraries, sport and recreation, volunteering, neighbourhood houses, economic development, community engagement and others to embed intercultural principles which improve positive local social cohesion outcomes for Council. If you’re not sure how to manage, write or implement an intercultural policy/strategy/action plan/framework/program consider us to help you or choose one of our intercultural mentoring programs for managers, policy makers or practitioners. For further information please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

One of the best things about interculturalism is that no topic is off the table. Interculturalism is about exchanging opinions, talking with each other, asking questions to better understand others. BUT, we understand that these types of conversations come with great risk so we have a highly skilled facilitator whose role it is to open up minds for thinking, create an environment for listening and safety for speaking. Whether it is neighbours in conflict with one another due to cultural tensions or leaders of groups of community members who want to have conversations between their people and others, there is an intercultural solution. We are bringing on a team member in February whose role will be to facilitate and support difficult conversations which lead to positive individual and social change. WHO CAN I CONTACT? For more information, please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

Whether your team needs the basics of intercultural knowledge or the skills for managing intercultural complexity, our training is specifically designed with you to align your team with your organisations’s implementation of intercultural principles, policies and practices. In addition to training, we offer tailor-made online or face to face training for up to six or more people at a time meet the needs of your team or council. Off the shelf programs we have developed include: - Intercultural policies and practice are a mindset - Making best use of your resources by using an intercultural approach - Intercultural practice at the local level community - Managing complexity in your community and many other topics for you to configure are you need. HOW IS INTERCULTURAL TRAINING OFFERED? Online individual topics are available on a one-off basis or as a series of topics. In person team training is available for a minimum of two days. Online tailor made training can be developed with you to meet your specific needs. A lot of consultants will tell you they are experts in intercultural practice and program design. While they may have some experience, the only person in Australia with more than 30 years of intercultural practice and policy design experience and internationally recognised expertise is Lynda Ford. WHO CAN I CONTACT? For more information, please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

Internal workshops are designed with you to explore what working interculturally means to your team and/or across Council and to embed intercultural principles, policies and practices for implementation. One of the best parts of interculturalism is that it recognises intersections within people - that people are not first and foremost their ethnicity or nationality. A person may be young, gay, born overseas, be involved in a strict faith, educated in a low ses Australian school, have a disability and now living in a rural centre. Each one of these attributes potentially disadvantages a young person and an approach which identifies the intersections and complexity in her life is the only way in which services will be able to wholly assist her. Interculturalism recognises this - the whole, 3 dimensional person - and provides an intersectional framework for the approaching solutions to the issues she is experiencing. Multiculturalism generally asks the question of ethnicity and country of birth. It was not set up for acknowledging or dealing with this type of individual diversity. Neither does it give solutions to current complex social that did not exist in the early 1970's. We can also facilitate workshops which bring together Council with external stakeholders to create intercultural solutions to local opportunities or issues. Whether your team is trying to work out how to align its current multicultural plan, how to write its 2026-2030 plan or would like to get community buy-in for its direction, our workshops are specifically designed with you. HOW ARE INTERCULTURAL WORKSHOPS OFFERED? Intercultural workshops are completely designed with you. We can offer a minimum of two hours to several days depending on your needs. If workshops aren't where you need to be at this stage, we also offer online team training, online individual or group mentoring (limited to 5 members) and group mentoring for teams within one Council. A lot of consultants will tell you they are experts in intercultural practice and program design. While they may have some experience, the only person in Australia with more than 30 years of intercultural practice and policy design experience and internationally recognised expertise is Lynda Ford. WHO CAN I CONTACT? For more information, please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

Every month we talk to someone in Australia who is working interculturally. We find out about them, their work and their impact in creating more intercultural, socially inclusive and cohesive communities. Our guests include council officers, elected members, community leaders, staff and management committee from charitable or sporting organisations and, sometimes, random people we come across who are really interesting and understand interculturalism as it applies to their daily life. We often invite international guests to discuss the work they're doing that may be useful to Australian policy makers, practitioners and elected members. We host webinars, write articles for our e-magazine called Intercultural Solutions, post information and send newsletters via Linked In. To be kept informed of intercultural solutions to support your work, join our community through lynda@mosaics.com.au WHO CAN I CONTACT? For more information, please contact: Lynda Ford OAM lynda@mosaicis.com.au +61 (0) 414 440 483

With more than 35 years experience, my career has been dedicated to advancing social cohesion and intercultural and intersectional understanding across Australia and beyond. I now work mainly in the area of intercultural policy, design, practice, program delivery and mentoring undertaking most of my work with local governments. Over the years I have worked in youthwork, migrant and refugee settlement, homelessness, family support, community development, community based crime prevention and entrepreneurship - taking on roles ranging from direct service delivery to policy and strategy development and executive and board-level leadership in Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria. I have managed complex projects and in all my work, I strive to foster a shared understanding that moves us beyond “us” and “them” toward a united “all of us.” I focus on interculturalism as a foundation of human rights, and a pathway to meaningful engagement, economic inclusion and social impact. I am committed to creating environments where every single person can thrive, feel connected to others and contribute to a positive future for Australia. I am committed to creating environments where every community can have courageous conversations, take advantage of their differences and use diversity to create a positive future locally and for Australia. For the past 12 years while advocating to all levels of government and community, my goal has been for every one of the 537 local governments in Australia to operate interculturally to benefit all their residents. It's still the reason I get up every day. Specialities: intercultural coaching, policy and program design and practice.

Parry is a dedicated advocate for Indigenous health and community empowerment, serving as the Managing Director of Linking Futures. With extensive expertise in Indigenous Specialist Service Provider, industry and community engagement, cross cultural communication and projects, cultural project management, and business connections, he is committed to fostering sustainable, community-led solutions that drive meaningful change. As a leader at Moorundi Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service Ltd., he champions a holistic healthcare model that integrates clinical services with well-being programs. His approach ensures culturally informed, community-driven care that enhances health outcomes and empowers Indigenous communities. Under his leadership, Moorundi has become a trusted pillar in Indigenous health, providing vital support and advocacy. Expanding his impact, Parry was recently appointed as a Board Member at the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, where he applies his governance expertise to improve healthcare delivery. His leadership is defined by empathy and intercultural inclusivity, ensuring that all voices are heard and respected while strengthening the health system’s responsiveness to community needs. Parry’s unwavering commitment to community development and inclusivity is evident in his ability to bridge relationships across cultures. Through his work at Linking Futures and beyond, he continues to drive collaboration, understanding, and long-term benefits for both Indigenous and broader communities, cementing his role as a key figure in advancing Indigenous cultural engagement and healthcare initiatives.

Flabia is the CEO and Founder of Transcend Beyond the Scope, a consulting firm dedicated to creating inclusive spaces and advancing equity for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and marginalised communities. She works with businesses, government agencies, and non-profits to deliver tailored solutions that break down barriers, amplify diverse perspectives, and drive meaningful organisational change. By combining innovative strategies with cultural insight, she empowers organisations to build trust, embrace diversity, and create environments where everyone can thrive. Her expertise includes leadership development, cultural competency training, and community engagement, designed to help organisations connect authentically with diverse groups and achieve lasting impact. At Transcend Beyond the Scope, inclusion is not just a value—it’s a strategic advantage. Flabia holds a Bachelor of International Studies, International Relations and Affairs from Deakin University and a Graduate Certificate in Mental Health from Victoria University. In 2024 she completed the Women of Colour Australia Executive Leadership Program and the iGen Foundation IYE Pre-accelerator entrepreneurship program.

Frances is an experienced Intercultural Practice Coordinator with a long history of working in local government with a regional Victorian council. She has worked in the higher education industry, is skilled in nonprofit governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, leading and writing government policy and strategies, program evaluation and social policy. She is a strong community and social services professional and is a Fellow of the Leadership Ballarat Western Region (LBWR) with Development Management qualifications from the Asian Institute of Management.