StudyPerth announces Crisis Relief program for international students
Insider Guides spoke with Angela Beechey, Senior Manager at StudyPerth about their recently announced Crisis Relief program.
The Program has been established to address the acute needs of international students by providing practical and immediate help. The package will be accessible by application by both individual international students in Western Australia who are in emergency need of food or shelter, and by eligible organisations and associations who are able to support international students with food, shelter, rights and support and health and wellbeing.
Angela outlined that funding from postponed or curtailed projects would be diverted to support students who were in immediate need for food or shelter through a reach-out website and dedicated email enquiries process. Students will initially be directed to the right contacts at their institution with all five WA universities now offering support packages. If they are ineligible for support via these means, they may be eligible for crisis relief in the form of an initial two-week rental payment and supermarket gift cards.
“By solving these immediate critical needs we can help with some of the stresses for students to allow them to focus on other important things in their lives.”
Longer-term, StudyPerth has surveyed students directly with feedback suggesting that rather than continual handouts, students wanted support finding employment. StudyPerth will look to shift their focus towards this in partnership with business councils and the WA community will be a key part of the success of this.
“Students are resilient, they have travelled across the world to be here and securing employment is a big part of that.”
StudyPerth is working with a number of crisis relief partners to establish a protocol to connect students with organisations who are already providing these services.
“It is the triaging and connecting of students that is important. When students have a lot of stress in their lives they may not know where to look for information.”
Angela also outlined the development of an interactive mental health series commencing next week to maintain student connections during this difficult time. Students are enjoying meeting others with the option to connect in a different sense through the StudyPerth digital calendar of events.
“How the sector, Government and study bodies respond now will impact how we recover and come out on the other side”
COVID-19 has forced adaptation and innovation but StudyPerth is looking toward the future to embrace this innovation to ensure all students have a positive experience in Australia.
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