The Victorian Government’s Jobs Victoria Mentors project has provided employment assistance and mentoring to job seekers experiencing barriers to finding work. This includes people at risk of long-term unemployment of 12 months or more. Culturally diverse Victorians were one of the largest cohorts of Jobs Victoria employment services.
Of the people Jobs Victoria Mentors helped to find
a job in 2023–24:
- almost 65% were culturally diverse
- 37% identified as women
- 26% were 24 or younger
- 10% were refugees.
Jobs Victoria Mentors staff delivered employment services in the languages of the communities they serve (DJSIR: $22.68 million in 2023–24).
Case Study
The Grass Roots Indie Development series Geelong (GRID) is an artist development program.
It supports emerging creatives in outer-suburban and regional Australia. The program links artists with industry to create environments in which they can thrive. The Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (DJSIR), through Creative Victoria, partnered with GRID to deliver a program in Geelong in 2024 and 2025.
Geelong is one of Victoria’s most culturally diverse regions. However, its outer suburbs also include many disadvantaged communities. Financial and cultural barriers make it harder for people from
these communities to get involved in the music sector.
In 2024, the GRID Series, with support from the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, gave 5 Geelong-based emerging artists the chance to produce a track, with mentoring help from a team of producers, engineers, songwriters, filmmakers and industry experts. Participants learned new skills that will help them find a sustainable career path, film content to support the release of their track and perform live in Geelong and beyond.
Born in Dandenong to parents of southern Indian heritage, singer Gloria Ragesh aka Wild Gloriosa created the track ‘Lover Girl’. She also made a film of the same name that explored her relationship with music and creative identity. She says, ‘GRID helped me gain my confidence back … It was also really nice to be connected with so many incredible people who are not only talented but kind and
very community minded.’
Gloria has since performed at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Queenscliff Music Festival and has supported the likes of Jessica Mauboy and The Bamboos. She is working on an EP, supported by
a Creative Victoria Music Works grant, which will be released in 2025. She won the 2024 Music Victoria Diaspora Award as well as the 2025 APRA AMCOS Profession Development Award.
Baraka The Kid, an afropop and hip-hop fusion performer, created ‘All My Life’, a song about his upbringing and appreciation of his mother. The song accompanies a short film of the same name that gave audiences a more in-depth insight into his story as a refugee living and working in regional Victoria. He sings in both English and Swahili to showcase his heritage and birthright and the language of his home in Australia.
‘Everyone who was a part of the program has had an impact of my life in one way or another … I have learned and gained so much more wisdom from each and every [mentor],’ says Baraka.
Baraka is now working on an Afro pop/Afrobeat EP that will fuse hip-hop, pop and R&B. He was nominated in the Best Hip Hop category and Best Regional Act category at the 2024 Music Victoria Awards. He also recently performed at the Australian Open as part of their entertainment offering.
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