Priscilla Brice-Weller, Managing Director, All Together Now
Priscilla Brice-Weller, a resident of Lewisham, has been nominated for the 2013 Women of the West Award for her work with All Together Now – Australia's only national not-for-profit organisation that has a sole focus of addressing racism.
Established in 2010, All Together Now uses innovative techniques – including the use of social media and film – to help the community understand how the existence of racism impacts the wider community, and to empower people to address racism in a positive and proactive way.
Priscilla's full-time role is as Managing Director of All Together Now, however the operational funding for the organisation only allows her to be paid for a single day of work each week. The fact that the rest of Priscilla's time is given to the organisation voluntarily is a reflection of her commitment to "erasing racism" in Australia.
Through her work with All Together Now, Priscilla maintains close ties with the Greater Western Sydney region. Acting on evidence from University of Western Sydney's Challenging Racism Project – which identified Parramatta as a key priority area in the fight against racism – Priscilla founded the One Parramatta short film project as a means of encouraging local people to reflect on their common values and behaviours towards others.
Priscilla's work has had a significant impact on public policy. As evidence of this, the recent National Anti-Racism Strategy cites the submission by All Together Now on a number of occasions in its Consultation Report – particularly in reference to the role of the media in anti-racism strategies, and the need for federal funding of anti-racism projects.
Priscilla began her career as a typist and then research assistant for a stockbroking firm in Brisbane, before working in investment banking in London. Priscilla says the desire to have a "more meaningful work life" led her to retrain as a web designer. For work experience, she volunteered her time to build websites for various not-for-profit organisations which led to her employment at Oxfam Australia in 2003.
Priscilla's nomination for the Women of the West Award is supported by recommendations by Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Helen Szoke, and Dean of the UWS School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Professor Kevin Dunn.
The recommendation from the Race Discrimination Commissioner states:
"Priscilla has shown enormous commitment, leadership, creativity and ingenuity in her work and has done this [her work with All Together Now] for minimum reward and compensation. She is extremely committed to building a better world, and cleverly uses social media and the internet to pursue this work."
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