What Belonging Actually Looks Like
Harmony Day often talks about belonging, but what does that actually look like for young people navigating a new country?At Youth Futures, it doesn’t look like a single moment, event, or milestone. It shows up in quieter, more practical ways in the everyday steps that build confidence, independence, and connection over time.
Through the SETS (Settlement Engagement and Transition Support) program, young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds are supported to find their footing in a new environment. For some, that journey is just beginning. For others, they’ve been in Australia for years. There’s no single pathway, and that’s exactly the point.
The real moments that matter
Belonging isn’t always obvious. It doesn’t always look like big achievements or public celebrations.
Sometimes, it looks like a young person who once needed support to attend an appointment, now showing up on their own.
It looks like someone who needed help understanding a letter, now helping their family navigate the same system.
It looks like a young person arriving at a session knowing exactly what they need, and what they don’t.
In SETS, these moments might lead to bigger milestones: reconnecting with education, progressing through an employment pathway, or completing a citizenship application. But just as often, the growth is less visible, building the confidence to ask questions, to make decisions independently, or to push back when something doesn’t feel right.
And sometimes, it looks like a young person saying they don’t need the program anymore.
That’s the goal.
Support that meets young people where they are
Belonging doesn’t happen by chance, it’s built through support that is flexible, culturally aware, and accessible.
In practice, that means:
- Support delivered in a young person’s preferred language, with interpreters and cultural advisors engaged as standard
- Connecting young people with services that are right for their cultural context, not just what’s available
- Meeting young people where they already are, through outreach in schools, community spaces, and cultural groups
- Creating opportunities for connection, both within their own cultural communities and across diverse groups
- Offering low-barrier access to support, whether that’s walking in, picking up the phone, or connecting through outreach
Every young person’s experience is different, so the support around them needs to be too.
More than a message
Harmony Day carries the message that “everyone belongs.” But for the young people in SETS, belonging isn’t a slogan, it’s something that’s built, step by step, through consistent support and everyday interactions.
It’s shaped by the people they encounter in their daily lives, teachers, employers, coaches, neighbours, service providers. The small moments in these spaces matter. They’re where young people learn whether they’re understood, respected, and included.
Inclusion isn’t something that only happens in programs. It lives in these ordinary interactions, across every part of the community.
Beyond a single week
Harmony Week creates an important moment to reflect and come together. But connection doesn’t follow a calendar.
For young people settling into life in Australia, what matters most are the consistent, accessible spaces where they feel welcome, a regular program, a familiar face, a place they can return to each week.
Harmony Week can remind us how important those spaces are, and to carry that reflection forward beyond a single week, and into the other 51.
A shared responsibility
If there’s one thing to take from Harmony Day, it’s this: belonging isn’t something young people have to earn, it’s something communities create.
And that happens in everyday moments, in everyday roles.
Whether you’re a teacher, an employer, a neighbour, or someone working in a frontline service, the way you show up matters. These interactions shape how young people experience their community.
Because in the end, belonging isn’t built through big gestures.
It’s built through consistency, care, and the spaces we create for each other, every day.
This Harmony Week, there are events happening across Perth and regional WA that celebrate culture, community, and connection.
Youth Futures will also be out at City of Swan's Harmony Week event: Altone Comes Alive on Saturday 21 March at Altone Park Oval in Beechboro from 4pm. It’s a free community event with live entertainment, food, stalls, and activities for all ages.
If you’re a young person, family, or community member looking for somewhere to connect, we’d love to see you there.