LOGAN Gardens was a sea of colour this morning as hundreds of people from the area took part in Harmony Day celebrations.
The family fun day saw representatives from 160 different cultural groups come together in a celebration of diversity, tradition, music, art and sport.
Representing rugby league at the event were NRL Development Officers who have been administering the QRL Harmony Program in the area and Brisbane Broncos players Mitchell Dodds and David Stagg.
Rugby league is one of the major activities in Logan and it was that in mind that the QRL Harmony Program was launched in the area a year ago as a way to bring people from more than 200 different nationalities and ethnic groups, including migrants, descendants of people born overseas and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people together via the development program.
Today’s Harmony Day celebrations began with a street parade that went along Wembley Road to Logan Gardens where stallholders from a number of different sporting, cultural, school and community groups gathered to provide fun activities and important health and welfare messages.
The day came about through the combined efforts of a number of community groups, including Access Community Services, who played a major part in the organisation of the day.
Executive Manager of Social Inclusion and Support Services at Access Community Services Etienne Roux spoke with QRL TV and said a major aim of the “One City, One People” project was to work with young people from multicultural backgrounds and those local to the area to make change within Logan.
“This (One City, One People) project takes an approach of working with young people on a grassroots level and building leadership with young people, but also working with community leaders, police and sporting organisations such as the NRL to make sure we can build the skills of young people to work together and get a positive message across,” Mr Roux said.
“Sport is a major aspect of building social cohesion, and also things are music and the arts and bringing all these different activities together in the “One City, One People” project we have worked with 65 young people who have taken leadership roles with this project.
“Overall we have engaged more than 500-600 young people in different aspects of this project and today is Harmony Day!”
A photo gallery and video of the day featuring footage from the parade and interviews with Etienne Roux and Bronco Mitchell Dodds will be on the QRL website soon.
National Harmony Day is celebrated on March 21 each year and is supported by the Federal Government’s Department of Social Services.
Find out more about the day, National Harmony Day website.
More info about Access Community Services in Logan and what they do can be viewed at their website HERE.
