Embracing
diverse cultures
Your HMC
Hunter Multicultural Communities Inc. (HMC) is a not-for-profit public benevolent organisation serving established, new and emerging multicultural communities in the Hunter Region and beyond.
Our Vision...
A cohesive, equitable and respectful multicultural society that values, promotes and celebrates cultural, religious and linguistic diversity.
Our Mission...
To be the leading influence for multicultural communities in the wider Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Hunter, Central Coast, Port Stephens regions and surrounding areas - providing services that support and promote a socially cohesive, equitable, healthy and respectful cultural, religious and linguistically diverse society.
Our Values...
Inclusion: we embrace diversity of all cultures, abilities and choices without discrimination
Empowerment: we support CALD people to build capacity for growth, success and belonging
Respect: we listen and act to improve our understanding and accept people’s differences
Integrity: we are open, honest, trustworthy and reliable in our service to others
- The HMC has grown to become a major provider of health, wellbeing, social and support programs to our Region’s diverse established and emerging CALD communities, older persons,
disenfranchised youth, special needs groups and the wider public. - With more than 70 community group members, a majority of which are representative of the established and emerging culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in this region.
- Funded by state and federal governments, the HMC continues its historical advocacy services to skilled migrants and humanitarian refugees making Newcastle their new home.
- Initially, from 1977 we established support services for our ageing post WWII European migrants who came to work in the steelmaking and manufacturing sectors who arrived from 1946 until 1973 predominantly as political and economic refugees from countries such as Poland, Italy, Greece, Macedonia, Austria, Hungary, Germany and Russia.
- In the following decades people arriving in Newcastle were increasingly from India, China, Philippines and Malaysia. African humanitarian refugees arriving mainly between 2004-2009
were from a range of countries including Sudan, Congo, and Liberia. The current focus for humanitarian settlement in Newcastle is people seeking new horizons from countries such as
Syria, Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. - The HMC also works in conjunction with other Newcastle based community organisations providing specialised support for our diverse communities including a range of settlement, trauma counselling and rehabilitation, education, language, housing, health and wellbeing, welfare and safety services.