Circle of Friends Australia is looking for new management committee members to help guide our growing, volunteer‑run organisation. With some long‑serving members preparing for retirement, this is an important moment to strengthen our leadership team so we can continue supporting refugees and people seeking asylum with stability and care.
If you’d like to help strengthen a meaningful, community‑driven organisation, we’d love to hear from you. Please email Trish to express your interest.
Our committee is made up of people with different skills, backgrounds, and life experiences. Everyone has something valuable to offer, and every voice is respectfully listened to. You don’t need to be an expert — just someone who cares about fairness, community, and practical support.
What to expect
- Monthly online meetings at 7pm the second Thursday of each month
- A semi-formal, supportive environment with time to settle in, observe, and learn how things work
- Opportunities to contribute to planning, decision‑making, and supporting the Circles
We welcome members from all walks of life who are committed to social justice and supporting refugees, and we especially encourage people with lived experience of seeking asylum or being a refugee to join us. Experience in areas like governance, finance, community work, advocacy, refugee law, volunteer coordination is helpful, but absolutely not essential. If you have the heart for this work but are unsure about your skillset, please don’t let that hold you back.
Background information
Circle of Friends Australia is a grassroots movement of local community groups supporting asylum seekers and refugees — whether they are living in the community or being held in detention. All our members are volunteers from all walks of life, united by a shared belief that every new arrival to Australia deserves a genuine welcome and practical help in building a happy and successful life here. We hold no particular political position. What we do hold is a conviction that we Australians are, at our best, a welcoming, generous and compassionate people — and that demonstrating those values in small, concrete ways can make an enormous difference to someone navigating an unfamiliar system far from home.
Our Key Objectives
- To support asylum seekers and refugees in the community and in detention.
- To assist people and communities suffering in situations of conflict, displacement, disaster, discrimination and poverty.
- To organise educational activities to inform members and the public about issues relating to asylum seekers and refugees.
- To encourage the formation and growth of regional groups to support refugees and asylum seekers in their communities.
Our Core Principles
Circles and their members:
- Provide open, unconditional friendship.
- Work to enable, not to create dependency.
- Act with the knowledge and consent of those they assist.
- Foster open, transparent communication with lawyers, migration agents, other professionals and government officers.
The Primary Work of Circles can include:
We work alongside new arrivals to help them find their footing. That means:
- Meeting people and making connections within the local community.
- Learning about nearby services and organisations that can offer support — or where they themselves can contribute.
- Practising everyday English conversation.
- Understanding Australian customs, attitudes and ways of doing things.
- Making sense of government processes and requirements.
- Making the most of every opportunity for education.
- Fund-raising events
- Refugee-centred activities, events and outings
Some Circles also assist those facing critical material or financial difficulty, both in Australia and overseas.
Governance
Circle of Friends Australia Inc. is registered with the Australian Taxation Office as a Public Benevolent Institution, and with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission as a charity with tax-deductible receipting status for donations.
Organisational accountability is maintained through a Management Committee operating in accordance with our Constitution.
Please email Trish by to express your interest in joining the committee.