About the Engage, Challenge, Grow (ECG) Initiative
The LMA’s vision is to create an Australian Muslim community that has a positive and sustainable contribution to Australian society and engage Muslims by promoting social harmony in a multicultural environment.
As a result, the LMA identified a number of significant challenges facing the local Muslim community and specific gaps in services and programs that would assist in addressing such problems. In 2012 Engage, Challenge, Grow Program (ECG) was developed to help work towards addressing these gaps.
The ECG Program focuses on community capacity building, addressing social exclusion and providing support to the Australian Muslim community. The ECG Program has since grown from the deployment of 12 projects in 2013 to over 100 dynamic, empowering and impactful initiatives. Each of which cultivate social capital and cohesion and positively contribute to the social fabric of our multicultural society.
The key ECG projects are highlighted below.
Engage
The Engage stream of the ECG program is aimed at youth leadership and personal development. It encourages young people to become involved in all aspects of their local community and create a sense of belonging through helping communities work towards a spirit of inclusiveness and shared identity.
Challenge
The Challenge stream of the ECG program focuses on community building, healing, harmony and strengthening community cohesion. It aims to promote the importance of Australians respecting each other, regardless of cultural, racial or religious differences, through education, public events and information sharing.
Grow
The Grow Stream of the ECG program focuses on providing training and outreach to the wider community. The projects under this stream aim to develop community capacity building skills for specific community groups considered to be continuously under significant pressure due to their religious or racial diversity. The program also aims to provide targeted education as a means to breakdown misconceptions and misunderstandings.
To see what programs and events are on now, click here.
