The CALD Community Education project was auspiced by the Carers Association of SA and aimed to promote carer issues and resources to meet the needs of carers among four selected CALD communities using selected past or current carers to act as "ambassadors". The evaluation used interviews, focus groups and an e-mail survey to evaluate the success of the project. It was found that:

• Carer Ambassadors were successfully recruited from three of the four communities selected. The Vietnamese community were unable to provide an Ambassador owing to a number of circumstances but did receive input about the project from the Project Officer.
• The role of Carer Ambassador was considered successful in most cases in forming links with their communities and providing information on the caring role and resources available to support carers. The use of carer stories to faciliate discussion and information exchange among community members was an appropriate strategy in most cases.
• Carers involved in the meetings with the Ambassadors agreed that the information supplied was useful in most cases although some were already linked to services or not currently caring for someone.
• The project helped form useful links between the Carers Association and the community workers for each cultural group, and other agencies involved in service provision to carers from CALD communities.
• Barriers to accessing services for CALD carers such as language, cultural differences and lack of trust and knowledge of services were identified through the project activities and the evaluation.
• The short time-frame for the project meant that the full scope of some objectives were not able to be achieved and some of its impacts, such as potentially increased numbers of CALD carers contacting the Carers Association for assistance after hearing an Ambassador speak, are not yet apparent.

The project concluded in September, 2003.

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