The Andrews Labor Government is ensuring Victorians from diverse backgrounds stay healthy and get vaccinated with support for health messaging created by multicultural communities for multicultural communities.

Minister for Multicultural Affairs Ros Spence today announced an additional $1.8 million to produce tailored health messaging through the second round of the Multicultural Communications Outreach Program.

The funding will support the development of both digital and traditional forms of health messaging that address misinformation and stigma about COVID-19 and provide information about COVID-19 vaccinations and COVIDSafe behaviours.

It will also fund training for content creators to produce the health messaging – building new skills that support culturally and linguistically diverse communities and Victoria’s social and economic recovery.

Two funding streams are available, with grants of up to $75,000 for multicultural media and community organisations and up to $10,000 for individuals and sole traders with established networks within culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Applications will be prioritised from groups including those with limited social connections who struggle to access supports, new and emerging communities, international students, refugees and asylum seekers, youth, women and LGBTIQ+ communities.

This grant round builds on the $2.7 million already provided to 78 multicultural and multifaith organisations through round one of the program.

Previous funding has supported projects such as Cross Cultural Community Connections’ culturally appropriate short animations, illustrations, posters and GIFs for the Serbian community that promote vaccination and COVIDSafe behaviours, including in-language interviews with medical professionals.

Applications are open until Tuesday 29 March.

For more information, please visit  vic.gov.au/multicultural-communications-outreach-program.