Vision and Values

Since 2001 the ASRC has grown to be Australia’s largest asylum seeker organisation. With 32 paid staff and nearly 750 volunteers delivering services to over 1,200 asylum seekers at any one time through programs such as material aid, health, legal, counselling, casework and foodbank. In its first 9 years the ASRC has assisted over 7000 people seeking asylum, provided more than 1 million hours of free help and turned no one in need away. All of this has been achieved with almost no government funding and more than 95% of our funding coming solely from the community and philanthropy. The ASRC does it all – from direct aid, welfare and medical care, to strengthening families and communities through community development, to campaigning for social change.

The ASRC is a place where people are made to feel welcome, safe and supported. Despite the rapid and enormous growth since the centre opened – in the number of people the ASRC helps, the services the ASRC offers and the people who volunteer at the ASRC – the ASRC has not lost the ethos and spirit upon which it was founded. The ASRC still has the same multi-coloured walls that it had back in 2001 that make people feel at home. The mish mash of earthy recycled furniture is still at the ASRC too, where people can rest their weary bodies and spirits. Beautiful, exotic smells emanate from the ASRC community lunches every weekday and one is surrounded by the sounds of the rich mosaic of languages from across the globe.

The ASRC has always been about people and nothing else. The only reason the ASRC opened and continues to exist is to make sure asylum seekers get a fair go. At the ASRC we don’t believe in people being too hard or complex to work with. In fact the more vulnerable or marginalised a person is the more important it is that we support them. At the ASRC we believe in the potential of people. At the ASRC we believe in the extraordinary resilience and courage of asylum seekers. At the ASRC we believe in hope.

Our Vision

That all those seeking asylum in Australia have their human rights upheld and that those seeking asylum in our community receive the support and opportunities they need to live independently.

Core Principles

At the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) we:

Assist all asylum seekers regardless of race, religion, gender, health or sexuality: we do not means test or merit test for general access to the ASRC and we turn no asylum seeker in need away.
Advocate for asylum seekers without fear or favour, and works at both an individual and structural level in trying to create the most just refugee determination system possible
Empower asylum seekers and fosters their independence and self-determination
Engage, educate and work with the community as the key to creating social change
Work from an holistic model of practice that sees the entire person - a strength based approach that sees the potential in all our members
Work from a social justice model that is committed to human rights
Remain an independent organisation at all times and do not accept funding that will compromise our independence or the quality of our work
Value an organisational culture which is responsive to the needs and wants of asylum seekers and involves volunteers as the heart of our work force.
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[LINK] CEO's Message