About Live Smart

Since 2006 Iramoo Youth Refuge has produced the Live Smart Diary, a handy resource that gives young people information and advice so they can make informed decisions about their lives. Every year over 1,000 young people use the Diary to keep track of appointments, record phone numbers and read up on how to get a house, find a job or how to cook a good meal.

The Live Smart website takes the Diary a step further by providing living skills information in multiple languages. The website is aimed at young people who are accessing housing or social support services and prefer to speak a language other than English. Information is available in 6 languages - Amharic, Arabic, Dinka, Karen, Swahili and English.

The design, structure and content of this website is the result of advice of young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds living in different parts of Melbourne. Their advice was specific and they were very clear about what information they wanted and how they wanted the website to look. On behalf of all the young people who will benefit from this website, we say a huge thank you to those who helped us out.

Live Smart website is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Their support and guidance throughout the project is greatly appreciated. And of course the website would not have happened without the enthusiasm and expertise of Chris Scanlan (Visualism Graphic Design) and Gerard Mason (Big Friendly Apes Web Design) and the quality translation work of the Language Factory.

Deciding on the five languages was difficult. We sought the advice of over 15 agencies who provide various forms of assistance to young people from different cultural backgrounds, to identify:

• Language gaps - i.e. communities who do not yet have much information available in their language from services
• Data on refugee arrivals, especially where sudden increases in arrival numbers of population groups have occurred and services have not yet been able to make information available in their languages
• Languages that young people are reading and talking rather than languages that their parents may speak but that young people no longer use

We know there are many communities who would want their language chosen, and we hope that if we get more funding we can add more languages later. So please send us your comments and suggestions via our Contact Us page.