Police take snaps to #CreateWelcome
Acting Senior Sergeant Trad Thornton and Senior Constable Deb Stewart with their welcome messages
As the senior Cross Cultural Liaison Officer on the Northside of Brisbane, Acting Senior Sergeant Trad Thornton took along a few QPS colleagues to be part of Multicultural Development Association’s (MDA) #CreateWelcome campaign.
MDA’s campaign focuses on creating a warm and inclusive environment for those arriving in Queensland, including refugees, people seeking asylum and international students. The campaign encourages the public to take a snap with their message of welcome for these groups and post it on social media with the hashtag. You can see Acting Senior Sergeant Thornton and Senior Constable Stewart’s message in the photo above. All these photos are then added together to create a huge ‘Welcome Wall’ of messages which anyone can view here.
The best welcome shots have then been displayed on digital billboards since April and will continue to be projected until the end of this month. The billboards can reach more than 85% of South East Queensland in a week, meaning there’s a potential that more than two million of us get to see a message of welcome every week!
A lot of the QPS’s ongoing work with MDA is ensuring newly arrived (to Australia) people know that the police are friendly and willing to help. This campaign is another way for us to reach out and show how approachable we are to everyone.
MDA’s campaign will form part of the organisation’s World Refugee Week celebrations next week (June 18 until June 26).
