History
Phil Elsegood established Cross Cultural Consultants in 1990 to meet the need for a flexible, independent service to support stakeholders working in, from and with indigenous communities. Phil drew on his own 40+ years experience of living and working cross culturally, extensive indigenous networks, colleagues’ field experience and current best practice in the field of intercultural research and community development to build Cross Cultural Consultants' unique approach to cross cultural work. Cross Cultural Consultants' training and practice is both academically referenced and grounded in hands-on experience. The focus of Cross Cultural Consultants' activities in the 1990's was delivery of training to government, private sector and community organisation staff.
Through this, Cross Cultural Consultants identified and met the need for additional training programs on cultural diversity, community development, conflict management, governance, employment, rural development, historical perspectives on Aboriginal culture in various locations and specialised programs for the resources industry and other sectors such as health and education.
To meet the demand for addressing intercultural conflicts, Cross Cultural Consultants brought mediation practice into its suite of tools. The blend of mediation, training and project management was indispensable in CCC's extensive consultancy work during the late 1990’s / early 2000's, working closely with Aboriginal organisations to develop effective governance models, including culturally appropriate planning, evaluation and program management.
From 2000, Cross Cultural Consultants has been focused on facilitating indigenous enterprises that enable local communities to build sustainable contemporary economies based on traditional skills and knowledge. The Mudla mudcrab farm at Kulaluk community opened in 2005 and development work continues on a number of other enterprises.
In 2005 Cross Cultural Consultants won the contract to provide Pre departure Training to over 1000 Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) and debriefing services to over 700 between February 2005 and May 2007. Since late 2005 Cross Cultural Consultants has also worked with the Volunteering for International Development from Australia (VIDA) program in the same role as well as developing distance learning materials, training courses and other tools for cross cultural capacity building in overseas development.
In 2006 Cross Cultural Consultants was engaged by the employment sector to apply cross cultural tools to preparing and mentoring employees for work. Partners have included Mission Australia and MaxNetwork and some major employers. Our innovative programs draw on cultural strengths and cross cultural frameworks to maximise the benefits to employees and employers.
While continuing to deliver cross cultural and capacity building training for both the domestic and overseas development sector, Cross Cultural Consultants is more than just a training organisation. Recent work has involved assisting partners with designing and implementing community engagement strategies for housing, forestry, resource development and tourism programs. Today, the company is in a key position to support the cross cultural endeavours of communities, governments and business.