Multicultural Health advocate elected Chair

The Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV) elected long serving advocate for multicultural communities Eddie Micallef as its Chairperson last night

Mr Micallef was formerly Deputy Chair, a position he held for the past six years before becoming the chairperson, is proud to be leading the ECCV, the Voice of Multicultural Victoria.

The former MP, who served in the Victorian Parliament from 1983 to 1999, has been a committed deputy giving a strong voice to people from culturally diverse backgrounds at government and community consultations over many years.

Mr Micallef is also the convenor of the ECCV Health Policy Sub-committee. In that role he has brought forward crucial policy work in areas including diabetes education, youth sexual health, language services and substance abuse. He also presided over the launch of an ECCV Health Literacy Paper by the Victorian Health Minister, the Hon. David Davis.

“It’s an honour to serve as ECCV’s chair, an organisation that I have seen grow exponentially since the beginning of my involvement.” said Mr Micallef.

“I am determined to further advance ECCV’s advocacy on a wide range of issues crucial for our members and stakeholders by building stronger alliances between governments, services providers and ethnic communities,“ added Mr Micallef.

Mr Micallef is to head a new Board and will be well supported by Deputy Chairpersons Marion Lau and Sam Afra. The Board itself comprises a good balance of men and women from culturally diverse backgrounds with strong grassroots links. To see the new board’s composition click here.

The new Board thanked outgoing chair Joe Caputo OAM JP, who will remain on the ECCV board whilst serving as Chair of the Federations of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA), for his outstanding leadership.

“I have known Joe since he was mayor for Moreland and have been very pleased to see his long term contribution to the empowerment of ethnic communities recognised at ECCV and now at FECCA”, said Mr Micallef.

Mr Micallef looks forward to promoting ECCV’s core work on behalf of multicultural communities in employment, aged care, training, education, new and emerging communities, mental health, women’s and youth health issues to ensure all Victorians have equal opportunities to progress.