In the late 1970s, a five‑member research group known as the Ethnic Child Development Unit was operating out of a small office at the Addison Road Community Centre. The old Army barracks in Marrickville had become a “hot house” for community development and public policy influence.
By 1979, that research brought together seven ethnic long day‑care providers to form Ethnic Child Care and Family Services, which became Community Services Cooperative twenty years later and Ethnic Community Services in 2024. It was no coincidence that Ethnic Child Care and Family Services was based in Marrickville. From there, it would go on to transform how children and families from diverse cultural backgrounds were included in—and benefited from—early childhood education and care across Australia.
Fast‑forward to 2026, and Dina Petrakis, CEO of Ethnic Community Services NSW, reflects on that legacy. “We stopped operating as a cooperative a while ago, but the same vision and values drive our work today.” Understanding where an organisation began, she says, is essential to understanding its future.
According to Dina, the need for an ethno‑specific specialist organisation that represents, advocates for, and includes people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities is just as relevant now as it was in the late 1970s. Research continues to show that children, adults and older people from diverse ethnic backgrounds face barriers and disadvantage across service systems and community life. We want to remove those barriers and help make systems fairer, allowing all communities equitable access to services.”
This long and proud history of leadership and service delivery with—and for—multicultural communities remains the organisation’s driving force. “Diversity and inclusion are foundational concepts that continue to inform who we are and how we work, now and into the future,” Dina says.
How this plays out in practice is complex. Embracing the word ethnic in the organisation’s name was a deliberate and strategic choice. “People who are not familiar with government language or who don’t work in this sector don’t know what ‘CALD’ is,” she explains. In addition, the word “ethnic” reflects the organisation’s important, long-standing legacy, which includes the Research, practice wisdom, and the voices of people with lived experience who are shaping what a contemporary ethno‑specific organisation looks like today.
Ethnic Community Services now provides essential services tailored to the needs of families and children, people with disabilities, and seniors from multicultural backgrounds—both newly arrived and long‑established communities. Programs span older people, those living with disabilities, and children and families.
Dina is the first to acknowledge the challenges. “Every service we deliver to every individual and family almost always requires an additional level of advocacy and representation. We are working within and across service systems that still have barriers to equitable access. There continues to be a lack of understanding about why people ‘can’t learn English quickly enough’, why they don’t understand Australian systems and bureaucracy, and a lack of awareness that underlying trauma—migration, war, famine, family separation—continues to affect generations of ethnic families.”
Evidence‑driven policy and practice remain central to the work of this ethno‑specific agency. Dina and her team are focused on building models and supporting other organisations to deliver accessible, ethno‑sensitive services across NSW. “Using our own practice experience, skills and knowledge to deliver services is one thing. We will continue to do that in the communities where we have a strong footprint, particularly the inner Sydney region. But we also want to share our acumen and experience so that every region across NSW has service systems that are inclusive and equipped to meet the needs of their ethnically diverse communities.”