Engaging CALD Communities: A Practical Guide for Government and NFPs

Australia is one of the most culturally diverse nations on earth. The 2021 Census found that nearly 30 percent of the Australian population was born overseas, and more than one in five households speak a language other than English at home. For government departments and not-for-profit organisations, this diversity presents both a responsibility and a challenge: how do you communicate effectively with communities whose languages, cultural norms, and information preferences differ significantly from the mainstream?

The term CALD — Culturally and Linguistically Diverse — is widely used across Australian policy, health, and community sectors to describe these communities. But engaging CALD audiences goes far beyond translating existing English-language materials. It requires cultural understanding, community trust, and a willingness to adapt not just what you say, but how and where you say it.

This guide outlines practical strategies for government and NFP communicators working to improve their reach into CALD communities.

Why Standard Communications Often Miss CALD Audiences

Many organisations default to a translate-and-distribute approach: take existing English content, translate it into a handful of community languages, and publish it alongside the original. While translation is an essential part of the picture, this approach often falls short for several reasons.

First, the source content itself may not be suitable for translation. Government communications often use complex sentence structures, jargon, acronyms, and culturally specific references that don't translate cleanly. A fact sheet that makes perfect sense in English can become confusing or misleading when translated literally into another language.

Second, distribution channels matter enormously. CALD communities don't all consume information in the same way. Some rely heavily on community radio, ethnic media, or word-of-mouth through trusted community leaders. Others use WhatsApp groups, WeChat, or community Facebook pages. Simply posting a translated PDF on a government website may reach very few of the people it was designed for.

Third, trust is a critical factor. Many CALD communities — particularly refugee and asylum seeker populations — may have deep-seated distrust of government institutions, shaped by experiences in their countries of origin. Building trust requires consistent engagement over time, not just one-off campaigns.

Start With Research, Not Assumptions

Effective CALD engagement begins with understanding your audience. This means investing in research before you start creating content. Who are the specific communities you need to reach? What languages do they speak at home? Where do they get their information? What are their attitudes toward the topic you're communicating about? Are there cultural sensitivities or taboos that could affect how your message is received?

Demographic data from the ABS, local council community profiles, and settlement data from the Department of Home Affairs can provide a starting point. But quantitative data only tells part of the story. Qualitative research — including focus groups, community consultations, and interviews with community leaders — gives you the cultural insight needed to shape messaging that resonates.

Some organisations also conduct language audits to identify which languages are most relevant in their service areas, rather than defaulting to a generic list of "top ten" community languages that may not reflect local demographics.

Design Content for Translation From the Start

One of the most impactful things you can do is write your English source content with translation in mind. This is sometimes called writing in Plain Language — using clear, simple sentence structures, avoiding idioms and acronyms, and keeping paragraphs short.

Content that is written clearly in English translates more accurately, more quickly, and at lower cost. It also reduces the risk of meaning being lost or distorted in translation. Practical steps include using active voice, defining technical terms when they first appear, avoiding culturally specific metaphors, and keeping sentences under 20 words where possible.

If you're creating visual content — infographics, social media tiles, or video — consider how these will work in right-to-left languages like Arabic or Farsi, or in languages with longer average word lengths that may not fit neatly into your English-designed templates.

Use Professional, NAATI-Certified Translators

For any material that will be published or distributed to the community, always use professional translators. In Australia, the benchmark for professional translation is NAATI certification — the credential issued by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.

NAATI-certified translators have been assessed for language proficiency, accuracy, and intercultural competence. Using certified translators ensures your content meets the quality standard expected by government and community audiences, and protects your organisation against errors that could cause confusion, offence, or harm.

Avoid relying on machine translation tools like Google Translate for community-facing materials. While these tools can be useful for internal comprehension tasks, they frequently produce inaccurate, awkward, or culturally inappropriate translations that can undermine your credibility with CALD audiences.

Go Beyond Translation: Transcreation and Cultural Adaptation

For campaign-style content — advertising, social media, video scripts — translation alone may not be enough. Transcreation is the process of adapting a message for a different cultural context while preserving its intent, tone, and emotional impact. This might mean changing imagery, adjusting a call to action, or reworking a headline entirely so it resonates with a specific cultural audience.

Cultural adaptation also applies to visual content. Colours, imagery, and symbols carry different meanings across cultures. A thumbs-up gesture, for instance, is offensive in some Middle Eastern cultures. Green has religious significance in Islam. Stock photography that only depicts Anglo-Australian faces may signal to CALD audiences that a service isn't for them.

Working with translators and cultural consultants who understand the target community is essential for getting this right.

Choose the Right Distribution Channels

Once your content is translated and culturally adapted, you need to get it in front of the right people. This requires understanding the media consumption habits of each target community.

Ethnic media — community newspapers, radio stations, and television programs — remains a powerful channel for reaching first-generation migrants and older CALD community members. SBS, community radio stations, and local ethnic press all offer advertising and editorial opportunities.

Digital channels are increasingly important, particularly for younger CALD audiences. But the platforms differ by community: WeChat is dominant among Chinese-speaking Australians, WhatsApp is widely used in South Asian and African communities, and Viber has strong penetration among some Southeast Asian groups. Facebook remains broadly relevant across many communities.

Community organisations, religious institutions, settlement services, and multicultural councils can also serve as trusted intermediaries — helping distribute information through existing networks and lending credibility to your message.

Engage Communities as Partners, Not Just Audiences

The most effective CALD communication strategies treat communities as active participants rather than passive recipients. This means involving community members and leaders in the design, review, and distribution of your communications — not just at the end of the process, but from the beginning.

Community co-design approaches might include involving bilingual community workers in message testing, running in-language focus groups to refine creative concepts, or appointing community ambassadors who can share information through their own networks with the trust and cultural authority that institutional communications often lack.

This participatory approach takes more time and investment upfront, but it produces significantly better outcomes — both in terms of reach and in terms of the quality and cultural appropriateness of the final product.

Measure What Matters

Finally, don't assume your CALD engagement strategy is working just because you've ticked the boxes. Build evaluation into your campaign from the start. This might include tracking in-language website visits, monitoring engagement on ethnic media placements, conducting post-campaign community surveys, or measuring service uptake among specific language groups.

Measurement helps you refine your approach over time and makes the case for continued investment in CALD communications — something that is often the first line item cut when budgets tighten.

How LEXIGO Supports CALD Engagement

At LEXIGO, we work with government departments, councils, health services, and not-for-profit organisations across Australia to design and deliver communications that genuinely reach CALD communities. Our services span professional translation by NAATI-certified translators, cultural consultation, transcreation, multilingual content production, and community engagement strategy — all in more than 170 languages.

Whether you're developing a multilingual public health campaign, translating critical safety information, or building a long-term CALD engagement framework, we can help you move beyond translate-and-distribute toward communications that actually connect.

Get in touch with the LEXIGO team to discuss your CALD communication needs.