Home is not just a place — it is the feeling of being truly welcome. This Refugee Week, we celebrate the people who have journeyed far, and the community here in South West Sydney that has opened its arms to receive them.
In South West Sydney, we know what that journey looks like. We have walked alongside families from over 60 cultural backgrounds — people who have survived extraordinary hardship and arrived here carrying courage, hope, and the quiet determination to start again.
Refugee Week is our moment to stop and say: we see you. Not as a statistic. Not as a case number. As a neighbour, a friend, a member of this community.
This year’s theme, A Place Like Home, speaks to something we believe deeply at CORE — that belonging is not given, it is built together. Through connection, through welcome, and through the everyday acts of kindness that make a suburb feel like home.
Behind every number is a person. Behind every person is a story. This is one of them.
John first set foot on Australian soil as a young man — stepping off the plane in Adelaide with little more than hope and the quiet courage of someone who had survived the unsurvivable.
Adelaide became more than a landing point. It became home.
It was there that John found his footing — enrolling in education, building a career, and eventually planting the deepest roots of all: a family. A life. A future that once felt impossible.
For John, Adelaide didn’t just offer safety. It offered belonging.
This Refugee Week, we honour the journeys of people like John — and the communities that open their doors wide enough to become home.
“Adelaide didn’t just offer safety. It offered belonging.”
Our annual Refugee Week event is a morning of stories, music, food, and connection — a celebration of the communities that make South West Sydney what it is.
You do not need a reason to come, other than wanting to welcome someone. All are invited. All belong.
We are not a national organisation with a local branch. We are from here. Our team lives in these streets, shops in these markets, and sends their kids to these schools.
As a proud Refugee Week sponsor, we are honoured to be part of a movement that reflects what we try to live every day — the belief that every person deserves to be welcomed, seen, and supported to build a good life here.
CORE Community Services — Multicultural Communities
