Who we are

Our story

The Centre for Culture, Equity & Health (CEH) grew out of North Richmond Community Health (NRCH) which provides medical, dentistry, counselling, cultural and allied health services to the communities of the City of Yarra.

Since its inception in 1974, NRCH has tailored its services to meet the changing needs of a very culturally diverse location.

The staff at NRCH soon came to understand how culture and ethnicity impact the way people understand health and wellbeing, and the way they access health services. As a result, NRCH has maintained an outstanding reputation for delivering culturally competent service.

In 1994, NRCH received funding from the Victorian Department of Human Services to share its learning across the state, and the Centre for Culture, Equity and Health (CEH) was formed.

With an initial focus on health outcomes, we provided cultural competence training to healthcare professionals, and began to amass a library of resources on multiculturalism and health.

Since then, we have continued to develop our expertise in health and wellbeing, human rights, cultural competence and health literacy.

Our Structure

Capacity building

We work closely with professionals from health, community and local government services to improve their responsiveness to people from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Most of our projects work towards building an agency’s cultural competence with priorities and actions directed by the agency.

Communications and online development

We help reach our organisational objectives and goals as well as provide support on project work. We do this through providing strategic communications and effective use of technology to enable further community engagement and reach of services.

Multicultural Health & Support Service (MHSS)

We work with communities and health professionals to address the poorer health outcomes experienced by people from refugee and migrant backgrounds, around HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections. We also offer a multicultural approach to alcohol and other drug support.