Ballarat African Association nominated in 2022 Victorian Community Achievement Awards

Ballarat African Association president Dr Michael Akindeju said since the association formed 16 years ago, it had witnessed an improvement on how the wider community viewed Africans.

"We have improved the situation and the City of Ballarat has done incredible work in improving harmony within our community," Dr Akindeju said.

He said the BAA contributed to legislation and policy development across local and state governments.

"Having a voice to the government on things like housing, public housing, housing affordability have been things that before now we were not able to do. But at this point in time we have been able to do that and it's a credit to the committee," Dr Akindeju said.

The BAA played a major role in successfully lobbying against discrimination within the real estate industry.

"What we found before was that if there were a number of people making an application for a lease, if you were an African and you have got other nationalities, in the pool you were more likely not to get it - all because you have African skin," Dr Akindeju said.

The BAA approached the Real Estate Institute of Victoria and Ballarat real estate agents to disclose their observations.

The association began writing letters to real estate agents confirming the rental applicant had a good standing in the community, a positive rental history and financial security.

"We put it to them that if someone is an African, and if we can put them on the same pedestal, that would be ideal," Dr Akindeju said.

After tackling employment issues about three years ago, the BAA and has seen 40 members find stable employment - where 80 per cent were youth - and 11 members start their own business.

"Employment was one other thing we wanted to ensure because when I came into office (in 2019), one of the problems we saw or was widely known was the branding of Africans, generally, in Ballarat was very poor," Dr Akindeju said.

"So we looked at funding through Regional Development Victoria's 'stronger regional communities' program."

The funding helped the BAA develop 10 holistic workshops that covered more than 70 topics, including family stability, creating wealth and self-improvement assessments.

Following the workshops, 40 Africans living in across the Ballarat region were employed while another 11 started their own businesses. Three years on, most of the business are doing well establishing themselves.

"One of our objectives is to support Africans and their families that live in Ballarat and the region. Our reach extends as far as Ararat and Horsham," Dr Akindeju said.

"We are championing a collective voice for the grassroots community. A number of needs would have gone unmet and the aura that we now enjoy in terms of the overall rapport and grounding of Africans in Ballarat would have been nearly impossible."

Dr Akindeju said he remembered when he first came to Ballarat nine years ago, he found people staring as he walked in the CBD.

"Now we have some good standing and branding in Ballarat at present," he said.

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The youth have not been forgotten, with the association continually working to bridge the gap between young people and the older generation.

"We felt a number of the problems of the African gangs in the western suburbs in the Melbourne area were the cause of that gap," Dr Akindeju said.

"Because young people love sports, we created and had a soccer match to develop relationships. A lot of the youth got paired off with a mentor and since that we have not had young people issues in Ballarat."

The BAA say about 2000 Africans above 18 years of age live in the Grampians region, with half of those in the Ballarat LGA.

"So we have attracted more Africans to come into Ballarat from interstate and from the Melbourne area," Dr Akindeju said.

"We have found that we have an improved branding and the fact we have gone through a number of programs that develop the identity of our members have largely attracted people into Ballarat."

Dr Akindeju said the BAA had helped to mobilise Africans to go beyond surviving into thriving, where more Africans were owning their own homes in Lucas, Alfredton, Delacombe and Bonshaw.

He said the association was proud to have been nominated in the 2022 Victorian Community Achievement Awards.

"It just goes to show our efforts are being recognised by people in the community and committee," he said.

"We thank the Ballarat community for their support and their commission that we are all equal, that we have a voice, that we have valuable things that we bring and contribute to the economy and to society at large."

Award winners will be announced at a gala presentation dinner on November 11.

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