Our wonderful HMC team has been very busy during May enjoying seeing people and participating in multicultural life in-person again!

We’ve welcomed back many more of our valued clients at our Waratah and outlying Health and Wellness Centres, supported more wonderful seniors in their homes and expanded our Meals Delivery Service into the Thornton/ Maitland area – its great to see their smiles again!

On 11 May HMC hosted ‘A Multicultural Day in the Garden’ supporting City of Newcastle’s Local Social strategy – it was exciting to welcome 200 people from our local CALD and residential communities to join with each other to share and celebrate the beautiful diversity and inclusion of various cultures from our greater Newcastle and Lake Macquarie areas.

It was special to have Councillor Carol Duncan, representing City of Newcastle, endorse the HMC’s ongoing contribution to the Hunter’s CALD communities and the importance of events like this to create opportunities for people to connect and foster social inclusion and belonging.

Our guests participated in a traditional indigenous smoking ceremony, planted new herbs used for Chinese cooking, enjoyed Arabic cultural cooking demonstrations and tastings (just WOW! – the aromas, the flavours, the passion!), and gathered for meaningful social conversations about multicultural life in our City – it was amazing to see so many people of mixed cultures, ages and communities come along, mix and meet new friends and enjoy the HMCs spacious and welcoming outdoor environment.

It was wonderful to welcome quite a few local residents for their first visit to HMC Waratah, impressed with our facilities and curious about being involved in seniors, youth, garden and shed programs.

A very special shout out to Paul Rockley and the Joblink Plus team for their skilful and diligent work creating the HMC’s new Yarning Circle and along with Darren and his workers for their continued overall awesome contribution over many, many months to literally build and expand the HMCs on-site facilities for our visitors and guests to enjoy – your work is very much appreciated everyday.

Huge thanks also to Les, our HMC Community Shed Coordinator for getting all the gear set up, to Jay, Head Gardener and Margaret, Garden Coordinator and all the garden volunteers for helping guests get planting, and to Aleisha and the Godfather Expresso participants for their flavour filled catering.

A special shout out also to the Waratah College Aboriginal dancers and Student Leadership reps who gave us a special performance and valuable insights to local multicultural life.

For details on how HMC can support your CALD community phone our friendly team on 4960 8248.