2015 APCO Freedom Day Ball

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FEATURE Amores receives NSW Medal for Lifetime of Outstanding Community Service APCO President Ruben Amores accepting the NSW Premier’s Medal for Lifetime Community Service from Minister for Multiculturalism Victor Dominello. APCO president Ruben Amores was the lone awardee of the highly coveted 2015 NSW Premier’s Multicultural Community Medal for Lifetime Community Service during the annual Premier’s Harmony Dinner held at the Rose Hill Gardens Grand Pavilion last Thursday, 12 March 2015. About 1400 guests from a cross section of the state including state and federal officials and foreign consular dignitaries attended the gala dinner. Ruben was recognised for his many voluntary community leadership roles including being the founding President of the highly acclaimed Kapit-bahayan Cooperative Ltd.(KCL), current President of the Alliance of Philippine Community Organisations Inc. (APCO) and founding chair of the Auburn Small Community Organisation Network Inc. (ASCON). He was also the President of PCC-NSW and Ilocano Association of Australia and was a member of the Filipino Ministerial - Community Consultative Committee organised by the previous Federal Labor Parliament. NSW Premier Mike Baird MP and Minister for Western Sydney and Minister for Community and Citizenship Victor Dominello MP awarded Ruben with the very prestigious medal before the 1400 dinner guests that included other government officials, Ministers and Members of the Parliament, foreign consular officers, business, education and community leaders. Other personalities were awarded multicultural community medals for youth leadership, community volunteering, arts and culture, business and posthumously. Ruben has given more than 20 years of exemplary voluntary services to the Filipino-Australian community. Organised in 1995, the 100% voluntarily tenant-managed Kapit-bahayan coop is the leading affordable rental housing coop in NSW. It has five property sites scattered around Western Sydney and also helped organise other coops among CALD communities including the Filipinorun Sedgwick Housing Cooperative Inc. Kapit-bahayan is considered to be the best housing coop because it is the only coop in NSW that was able to use its sweat equity or savings from operations
FEATURE to buy land and build the Canley Vale property under NRAS Commonwealth program. It is also the only recipient of the Global Bayaning Filipino (Hero) Award of ABS-CBN and Ugat Foundation in the Southern Hemisphere/ Oceania. Although only organised in 2010, APCO is currently the most active umbrella organisation among Filipinos because of its many community development and charity works here and in the Philippines. ASCON is composed of small and emerging communities in Auburn LGA that has initiated many inclusive and productive projects and activities such as the community hub facilities for organisational use, the popular annual Flavours of Auburn multicultural food festival, Food Tours and healthy Traditional Food Cookbook. Under Ruben’s stewardship, KCL was awarded: ZEST Outstanding Voluntary Community Organisation (High Commendation), Excellence in Housing for Building Communities and Tenant Engagement by the NSW Federation of Housing Associations Inc; Innovation and Building Partnerships by Common Equity NSW; Community Pride and Waste Reduction by Auburn City Council; Overall Excellence in Cooperative Housing by the NSW Federation of Housing Associations Inc; Excellence in Building Communities, by the NSW Federation of Housing Associations Inc; Excellence in Innovation in Service Delivery by the NSW Federation of Housing Associations Inc and Excellence in Asset Management by the Association to Resource Cooperative Housing (ARCH). APCO was a finalist of the ZEST award for its Typhoon Haiyan Emergency Response while FLAGCOM, an APCO affiliate, was finalist for its Mardi Gras Queen Pageant. APCO also received funding grants for community developments: “Fill in the Gap” training project for refugees and recently-arrived migrants who are not qualified to be serviced by Job Services Australia funded by DOOLEYS Lidcombe Catholic Club and Building Multicultural Communities Grant, Stream 1 funded by Australian Federal Government. Ruben also received a ZEST award for Outstanding Voluntary Community Leadership (Highly Commended). ASCON won the following awards: Jim Samios Award for Outstanding Contribution to Multiculturalism in NSW by Ethnic Communities Council of NSW Inc; ZEST High Commendation award for Flavours of Auburn (Project in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Group/Organisation) by Greater Western Sydney Community Services Sector. During Ruben’s presidency of PCC-NSW in 2007, the Board induction ceremony was held at the Blacktown City Council Hall before the PCC members, government officials and the general public, the Board had an audience with PM Kevin Rudd in Canberra, organised a community organisation management training for community leaders, co-organised a job-search training for newly-arrived Filipino migrants, had Sen. Ramon Magsaysay as Independence Ball speaker, initiated the making of the biggest Philippine flag in Australia which became the stage backdraft of the Independence Ball, co-hosted an international conference of overseas-based Filipino organisations, organised a Philippine Christmas Bazaar in Parramatta and prepared the nomination that won PCC the Philippine Presidential award. A few years earlier, Kapit-bahayan was awarded as the Most Outstanding Community Organisation and Ruben was awarded as Most Outstanding Community Leader by FILCCA. He and his wife helped organised APCO in 2010 as an alternative state federation for organisations and individuals that opted for a more democratic, socially conscious and morality upright community alliance. Ruben is married to an equally dynamic community leader, Dr Inocencia (Cen) Palomares Amores with whom they got 3 bachelor sons. Dr Amores was herself awarded Most Outstanding Voluntary Community Leader of Greater Western Sydney in 2013, appointed People of Australia Ambassador by the previous federal government, member of the NSW Ministerial - Community Advisory Committee, founding president of APCO and currently a ZEST Ambassador. Both were university professors and civic leaders in Ilocos Sur, Philippines before migrating to Australia in 1992.
Page 4 and 5: Message from the Australian Prime M
Page 6 and 7: Message from the Consul General Map
Page 8 and 9: REPORT APCO’s Accomplishments, Ac
Page 10 and 11: distributed to 100 very poor famili
Page 12 and 13: REPORT APCO delegates with MP Miche
Page 14 and 15: APCO Inc. Office Bearers, Directors
Page 16 and 17: APCO Inc. Freedom Ball 2015 Working
Page 18 and 19: Melanie-cristine Balagtas graduated
Page 22 and 23: From housing to homes: How a commun

2015 APCO Freedom Day Ball

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