This jam-packed day of activities, including a DJ, sausage sizzle, and food trucks includes something for everyone!

Community hubs are welcoming places where families from diverse backgrounds, particularly mothers with pre-school children, come to connect, share, and learn. They play a vital role in fostering social cohesion and inclusion in Australia.

Welcoming Week

Welcoming Week is an annual campaign and celebration showcasing communities striving to be more welcoming places for all, including migrants, refugees, people seeking asylum, international students, and the entire community. We acknowledge that Welcoming Week events in Australia will be hosted on the unceded lands of First Nations and recognize the generosity and important role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the work of Welcoming Australia and Welcoming Week.

Through Welcoming Week, organizations and communities bring together neighbours of all backgrounds to build strong connections and affirm the importance of building welcoming and inclusive communities for our shared future.

The 2024 Welcoming Week theme, #WhatBringsUsTogether, invites us to celebrate the work of advancing a welcoming Australia happening across communities every day. Whether through shared meals, sports, music celebrations, art exhibitions, storytelling circles, cultural exchanges, or community service projects, we look forward to seeing the creative ways communities celebrate Welcoming Week. By celebrating our shared humanity, we can advance a more inclusive and welcoming Australia where everyone can belong, contribute, and thrive.

Synergy Between Community Hubs and Welcoming Week

There is a natural connection between the goals of Community Hubs and the values of Welcoming Week. Both aim to create welcoming, inclusive, and supportive environments for all community members. In 2023, St Brigid’s School Community Hub in SA and St Brendan’s Community Hub in Queensland hosted successful Welcoming Week events – they’ve shared their experience and to help other Community Hubs host their own events this year!

We’re delighted to share our Welcoming Week Community Hubs Resource to help Community Hubs join the Welcoming Week movement in 2024.

Download it here and share with your Community Hub – we’d love for you to be part of Welcoming Week this year! You can host an event just for your Hub community members, or open it out to the public! Register your event here.

Thank you for making Welcoming Week 2023 a bright, warm and engaging week of celebrating the #PowerOfPlace in advancing a future where everyone can belong, contribute and thrive.

From Ararat, to Campsie, to Moorooka to Kilburn, to Gwelup, you brought thousands of us together to celebrate Welcoming Week! In only our second year joining this global campaign, we collectively hosted over 50 events and amplified the welcoming message online – thank you for joining us to affirm the importance of building welcoming and inclusive communities. We joined over 600 events across 6 countries; truly part of a global movement for welcoming!

We’ve loved seeing the creativity of your communities coming together in a bold display of welcome, deepening your commitment to creating places where everyone can belong, contribute and thrive.

Thank you for joining us this year!

3 September

• 3.00pm – Multicultural South Australia for the Voice – Parafield Gardens, SA

6 September

• 10.00am – Rolling out the Welcome Mat – Hobart, Tas
• 1.00pm – Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia: Welcoming Week Information Session – online

8 September

• Welcoming Week in Murray Bridge – Murray Bridge, SA

9 September

• 11.00am – Not Your Usual Saturday – Borderton, SA
• 3.00pm – East African Community Social Sports Event – Altona North, Vic

10 September

• 10.00am – Celebrate Welcoming @ Parks Library – Angle Park, SA
• 3.00pm – Sharing voices: belonging, harmony and spirituality – Port Phillip, Vic
• 3.00pm – East African Community Social Sports Event – Altona North, Vic
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11 September

• 10.00am – JBS Foods Riverina Special Morning Tea – Yanco, NSW
• 10.30am – Welcoming Week Storytime – Port Adelaide, SA
• 12.00pm – Celebrate Diversity and our Neighbours at Kilburn Community Centre – Kilburn, SA
• 12.30pm – R U OK? – Campsie, NSW

12 September

• 9.00am – St Brigid’s School Community Hub Open Morning – Kilburn, SA
• 10.00am – Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Jobs Expo – Mirrabooka, WA
• 11.00am – Welcoming Week in Ararat – Ararat, Vic
• 3.00pm – Youth Arts & Recreation – Open Access Welcoming Week – Hobart, Tas

13 September

• 9.00am – Welcoming Week Celebration at the St Brendan’s Community Hub  – Moorooka, QLD
• 10.30am – Morning Tea with Greenacres English Conversation Group – Greenacres, SA
• 10.30am – Welcoming Week Storytime – Enfield, SA
• 12.30pm – Community Lunch – Thornbury, Vic
• 6.30pm – Welcoming Community Dinner – Kilburn, SA

14 September

• 10.00am – Mooro Cultural Tour – Gwelup, WA
• 10.30am – Multicultural Fashion Parade at Junction Community Centre – Ottoway, SA
• 10.30am – Welcoming Week Storytime – Semaphore, SA
• 11.00am  – Morning Tea with English Chat Cafe – Angle Park, SA
• 6.00pm – Undefeated: exploring the migrant experience in Australia – St Kilda, Vic
• 7.30pm – Community Conversation / Language Exchange / English Corner / 英语角 – online

15 September

• 10.00am – Welcome to Revesby/Bunya Tour – Padstow, NSW
• 10.30am – Welcoming Week Storytime – Greenacres, WA
• 5.30pm – Friday Night Lights with One Culture – Blair Athol, SA
• 5.30pm – Welcoming Week in Mt Isa – Pioneer, Queensland

16 September

• 10.00am – Welcoming Week in Gladstone – Gladstone, QLD
• 11.00am – Waverley Volunteer Expo – Bondi Beach, NSW
• 3.00pm – Anniversary of Women, Life, Freedom – Adelaide, SA

17 September

• 9.00am – Living Together – Speers Point, NSW
• 10.30am – Community Conversation / Language Exchange / English Corner / 英语角 – Box Hill, Vic
• 10.30am – Welcoming Week Storytime – Angle Park, SA
• 2.00pm – Community Conversation / Language Exchange / English Corner / 英语角 – Glen Waverley, Vic
• 2.o0pm – Welcoming Week Walk – Port Phillip, Vic
• 4.00pm – Ku-ring-Gai local area community – Killara, NSW
• 5.30pm – City of Stirling Citizenship Ceremony – Stirling, WA

28 September

• 10.00am – All Things Bengali at Lakemba Library – Lakemba, NSW

29 September

• 10.30am – Welcome to Canterbury-Bankstown Picnic – Campsie, NSW