From being on the international stage to offering grass-roots support, Nadia Saeed is a true diplomat.
She’s also a fine role model.
The Shailer Park resident has just been awarded the Jack Cranstoun scholarship which is designed to help mediators further their studies.
This year, two new categories of scholarships have been introduced for First Nations Peoples and for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
“When you’re in community leadership roles or involved in some of the work that I do, you do face situations where you have to sometimes step in as a mediator in a formal or even informal sense,” Mrs Saeed said.
“As someone who is a person of colour; Australian-born Pakistani and a muslim, our community from my understanding, doesn’t really have many mediators in that space.
“So I think it’s pretty cool being a young person, being a female, being able to receive this scholarship.”
With a passion for mediation and dispute resolution, Ms Saeed has worked as a youth worker for the R4Respect Program at YFS since she was just 17-years-old, where she helps deliver respectful relationships workshops with young people in highschools, community groups and at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.
“We look at the Primary Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence; so covering topics around consent, domestic violence, boundaries, sexual offence, and understanding social media and things around pornography,” Ms Saeed said.
The Shailer Park local has also represented Australia on the World Muslim Communities Council since 2019 and works as a community development and youth programs coordinator at Islamic Women’s Association of Australia (IWAA), while balancing her studies in Human Services at QUT.
In her role at IWAA, the 24-year-old consults with Muslim Communities about local issues as part of the Community Action for a Multicultural Society (CAMS) program, to support greater intercultural connectedness.
Ms Saeed said the scholarship will allow her to develop her mediation skills and help her continue to make change at a grassroots level in communities that are culturally diverse.
“I’m the type of person that’s always willing to learn and find new ways to deal with things.”
“The feedback that I’ve always had, especially here in Logan, is that these communities are able to sometimes resonate with me a little bit more because I might look a little bit more familiar or similar.
“And I can understand some of their struggles, which is really a positive thing because that means that I can get through to them or they may feel more comfortable opening up to me.
“I absolutely love working in community development and youth work and am very interested to learn more about mediation.”
The five scholarship recipients, which were announced by the Department of Justice last week, will be trained by experienced mediators from Queensland’s Dispute Resolution Branch and would have the opportunity to be assessed for National Mediator Accreditation.
The scholarships, funded by the Queensland Government, honour the memory of Jack Cranston, a talented young mediator within the Department of Justice and Attorney-General who sadly lost his life in 2014.
“Mediators provide an invaluable service to the community, helping people resolve their differences without the need to go to court,” Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Shannon Fentiman said
“With a high rate of success, mediators save time, legal fees and court costs for the people involved – and the community at large – and help to free up the court system.”
