The Ethnic Communities Sustainable Living Project (ECSLP) is a partnership between the DEC and the Ethnic Communities Council NSW and focuses on providing environmental education to the major ethnic communities in NSW - Chinese, Greek, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Macedonian.

Over the past 12 months, 18 bilingual educators have delivered more than 300 practical workshops to 6000 people from the Vietnamese, Italian, Chinese (Cantonese & Mandarin), Arabic, Greek, Spanish, Korean and Macedonian communities, on a variety of topics including sustainable living, water conservation, energy conservation, air pollution, biodiversity, stormwater pollution prevention, composting, worm farming, green cleaning, waste minimisation and recycling.

The educators provide valuable connections between local government and non-English speaking community groups. Almost 30% of the NSW population comes from a non-English speaking background, and in some local government areas more than 60% of the population don't speak English at home. The educators can offer advice regarding culturally appropriate program design; facilitate focus groups and assistance regarding resources.

In addition to being experienced environmental educators and facilitators, many of the educators are accredited Earthworks Trainers. Councils can take advantage of this and offer certificate Earthworks courses to residents in Korean, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Greek, Italian and Arabic.

In September, other initiatives of this program include:

• An 8 week Sustainability Series on SBS Greek radio reaching approximately 40,000 Greek listeners in Sydney and Melbourne
  
• The Metro Water Education Program will focus on individuals from ethnic communities becoming "water ambassadors" for their communities as part of the NSW Government's Water for Life campaign.
  
  Local government sustainability educators are invited to participate in this program that will focus on water conservation actions within the home. This initiative is funded by The Cabinet Office and supported by Sydney Water.

For assistance reaching your local culturally and linguistically diverse communities or to attend a workshop in the greater Sydney metro and Illawarra areas, call Kylie Walker on (02) 8837 6003.

>> More info - www.environment.nsw.gov.au