AWE Newsletter - September 2022

Promote Support Recognise

Welcome to the September 2022 edition of the AWE Newsletter

AWE News

Support AWE to support you!

The AWE fundraising campaign is part of
Australasian Women in Emergencies Day.

AWE provides you with a range of free programs including newsletters, scholarships, a mentoring program, forums and events, and Australasian Women in Emergencies Day.

And we do this all without charging you membership fees!

By donating to AWE, you can help us continue our existing programs and expand our offerings to include professional development, an awards program, sponsored conference places and research.

Donate today!

National Gender Equality Strategy

In August AWE attended the Australian Gender Equity Council’s (AGEC) National Members Forum and Interactive Member Workshops with other organisations that represent women in the workplace and which are dedicated to achieving gender equity in Australia. These events provided AWE with an opportunity to contribute to AGEC’s advocacy priorities which will be shared with decision makers and developers of Australia’s first National Gender Equality Strategy.

Connect at a conference

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction will be held on 19-22 September in Brisbane. The overall theme of the Conference, From Crisis to Resilience: Transforming the Asia-Pacific Region’s future through disaster risk reduction, will focus on capturing and sharing lessons learned to reduce the risk of disasters across the Asia-Pacific.

AWE is organising a networking event and supporting some other activities at this Conference. We will send an email to all members with details of the networking event as they are finalised. If you are attending the event, please contact Amanda Lamont as we are looking for assistance with our activities.

AWE members Mirren, Anna and Tracy connected at AFAC22

Call for abstracts closes 30 September

Be part of the Women Practitioners in Emergencies session chaired by AWE at the International Sociological Association 20th World Congress in Melbourne in 2023. This session will explore the gendered nature of emergencies and associated implications as the world moves forward into an uncertain future with predicted increases in the frequency and severity of disaster events. are now open. Click here to find more information about the session, and how to submit your abstract.

AWE Women in Emergencies for Climate Action

The next AWE Women in Emergencies for Climate Action meeting will be from 12-1pm on Tuesday 13 September.

Join us online on Tuesday 13 September to meet other women working in climate action and find out how you can get involved. For queries please contact Amanda Lamont.

AWE NSW

The recent NSW State Government review into the 2022 Floods has now been handed down, with some significant changes already coming into place for agencies including the NSW State Emergency Service and NSW Rural Fire Service, and particularly for the remit and structure of Resilience NSW. Time will tell how these recommendations will be enacted and whether they will lead to improvements.

I also recently had the pleasure of working with a delegation of fire fighters from South Korea. With climate change South Korea is seeing an increase in forest fires and is looking at ways to address their training and equipment needs. While South Korea has both paid and volunteer participation, volunteers do not work in frontline firefighting, and interestingly are demarcated on gender lines. I think the delegates were surprised at how NSW addresses bushfire and volunteer participation. From our perspective it was an interesting insight into other organisations and how they manage participation.

Kylie – AWE NSW Chapter Lead

AWE Events

AWE Open Discussion – Training as a resilience-building tool

12-1pm Wednesday 28 September 2022

How can we ensure that the information and skills we are teaching, and learning, are really inspiring change?

The AWE Open Discussions provide a forum for members to explore insights, experiences and ideas on a range of topics.

This month’s Open Discussion will be hosted by AWE NSW Chapter Lead,
Trainer and Academic Kylie Ledger

Book now

Australasian Women in Emergencies Day Forum

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm Monday 10 Oct 2022

October 10 is Australasian Women in Emergencies Day, a day to recognise and celebrate women in emergencies and disaster resilience.

Join us at the Australasian Women in Emergencies Day Forum to hear from keynote speakers, a panel conversation, and messages of support from the sector.

Speakers will be announced soon!

Book now

AWE events are a great way to learn about and get to know other women in the emergency management and disaster resilience sectors. Keep an eye on our calendar of events, Missed an AWE event? Many of our past events are available for viewing on our YouTube page.

AWE Member profile

Dr Karleen Gribble – Proud AWE member and Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Core Group, Australian Breastfeeding Association.

Karleen Gribble is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney University. She is the author of more than 60 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on infant feeding, child protection, and child rights and is a world leading researcher on infant and young child feeding in emergencies. Karleen has been involved in policy development and training on infants and young children in emergencies since 2006.

She is one of the authors of the World Health Assembly-endorsed Operational Guidance on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies and a current steering

committee member of the international interagency collaboration the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Core Group.

Karleen has provided advice to UN organisations, INGOs, health professionals, emergency responders and government bodies in many countries on infants and young children in emergencies. She has been advocating with Australian governments and policy makers for better planning for children in emergencies for over a decade and is a member of the AIDR Evacuation Handbook Revision Working Group.

Karleen grew up on the edge of Royal National Park in Sydney and experienced evacuation because of bushfire as a young child. She now lives in the bush on the NSW Central Coast where her home was threatened by the Gospers Mountain during the Black Summer. Karleen is also an Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) Breastfeeding Educator and Counsellor and mother to three children and is Project lead on the ABA’s Community Protection for Infants and Young Children in Bushfires Project.

Karleen’s Babies and Young Children in the Black Summer Study is looking for research participants. If you were a parent or caregiver of a child 0-4 years, or supported families with young children during the 2019-20 bushfires, you may be eligible to be a part of this research. Click here to access the survey. For further information please contact Dr Karleen Gribble.

You can nominate yourself or another AWE member to be profiled in the AWE Newsletter.
Please email us for more information.

AWE Q&A

Q: I want to become a mentor, but I am not sure where to start or what to expect. Do you have any tips to help me become a great mentor?

A: Having a successful mentor/mentee relationship can be one of the most fulfilling work related activities we undertake. It’s important to recognise that this relationship has benefit for both parties, not just the mentee. Just some of the benefits to being a mentor are:

Validation of your leadership skills
Becoming recognised as an advisor
Learning to communicate clearly
Gaining new perspectives
Giving back and finding new talent.

So what does a mentor do? The concept of a mentor stems from Homer’s Odyssey. When the King of Ithaca, Odysseus, left home to fight in the Trojan War, he left Mentor in charge of his household. Mentor then served as a teacher and overseer for the king’s son, Telemachus.

Mentors provide advice and share knowledge with a mentee in order to help them advance their goals, whatever they may be. Functionally, this might look like teaching the mentee about a specific issue, coaching the mentee on a specific skill, facilitating the mentees growth by sharing resources and networks, challenging the mentee to move beyond his or her comfort zone, creating a safe learning environment for taking risks and focusing on the mentees total development.

Some practical tips to help make a good mentoring relationships are:

Choose wisely: The mentor and mentee must want to play each part. Find someone who is truly keen to learn, and who you click with. This is a relationship, not a job interview.
Agree on boundaries: How often will you meet? What are the rules of engagement outside of this? Can you email when you need to or call spontaneously? What is the length of the formal relationship? Is it a fixed period or open ended?
Establish overall goals and objectives: What does your mentee want to achieve over the long term?
Make an appointment: Don’t freestyle, make a regular date in the calendar or it won’t happen.
Set the agenda: Your mentee should come to the meeting with an agenda. What do they hope to get out of your meeting this time? What do they most need help with right now?
Preparation is key – set the expectation: Let your mentee know that you expect them to do the pre work they need, to make the most of your time together.
Be realistic: Sometimes life throws curve balls. If you find yourselves off track, re-engage and reset goals if need be.
Trust is a must: Trust is the foundation of successful mentoring. Sharing honestly about your hopes, dreams, expectations and fears, is the foundations of trust.

A mentee will want in a mentor someone who; is a senior employee or leader, is seasoned in their field with a lot of knowledge to share, has a good reputation, can expand their network, they will genuinely enjoy speaking and learning from them.

We have covered the why and how of mentoring, but where is a good place to find a mentor/mentee? Good news! AWE has a mentoring program that takes both mentors and mentees, and provides supporting materials to guide this relationship. You can find out more here: https://www.awenetwork.org.au/mentoring/

The AWE Q&A answers your questions by calling on the experience and expertise of our AWEsome membership. Email us your questions and we’ll work with our members to have them answered.

News, events, and resources

Women’s stories of recovery: Check out this series of videos that shares women’s stories of recovery from the 2019-2020 bushfires on the NSW Mid Coast. Manning Valley Neighbourhood Service offered story telling workshops which provided women opportunities to share their lived experience of the bushfires two years on.

Research participants wanted: The Babies and Young Children in the Black Summer Study is looking for research participants. If you were a parent or caregiver of a child 0-4 years, or supported families with young children during the 2019-20 bushfires, you may be eligible to be a part of this research. Click here to access the survey. For further information please contact Dr Karleen Gribble.

Person Centred Emergency Planning: This A5 Person Centred Emergency Planning Card is for emergency personnel and volunteers to share during their routine engagement with people in the community. The card invites people into a P-CEP conversation and introduces the four steps. Share these P-CEP postcards during your next disaster-ready event.

New fire danger rating: The new Australian Fire Danger Rating System is now in place. Designed to provide consistency across Australia, the new rating system provides simple clear advice for communities and fire agencies alike.

Proud AWE member and Acting Senior Sergeant at
Victoria Police Felicity Bell with an edible version of the new fire danger rating!.

Gender equality should be at heart of disaster response: In this article, Natasha Scott Despoja argues that by resourcing women in high-risk areas to be prepared and equipped for disaster will have a powerful double effect. Not only will it help women play their crisis role as first responders more powerfully, but the preparation and execution is a potent tool to shift gender norms that exclude women from decision making and leadership in public life.

New national emergency management agency: The National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Emergency Management Australia have joined to become the National Emergency Management Agency, a single, enduring, end-to-end agency to better respond to emergencies, help communities recover, and prepare Australia for future disasters.

Drought funding: FRRR and ARLF are collaborating to deliver the Community Impact Program, which is the first part of the Future Drought Fund’s Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative. There are 35 grants on offer of between $200,000 and $500,000, plus access at no cost to a range of leadership activities tailored to local community needs and a range of other support. FRRR is currently seeking expressions of interest for the lead community partner in each of 35 regions across the country. EOIs close 26 September. Find out more at www.frrr.org.au/impact-program.

Job opportunities

ACT
National Capacity Coordinator, Airservices Australia
Impact Investment Portfolio Manager, Minderoo Foundation

NSW
Natural Disaster Policy Planner (Land Use), Byron Shire Council
Corporate Communication Lead, Australian Red Cross

QLD
Community Recovery & Resilience Officer, Logan City Council
Senior Program Officer Volunteer Capability and Sustainability, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services

SA
Diversity and Inclusion Partner, Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia
Catchment Field Supervisor, WaterNSW

TAS
Project Manager Regional Drought Resilience, Department of Premier and Cabinet
Program Leader – Fire and Biodiversity, Hobart City Council

VIC
Senior Community Resilience Officer, Maribyrnong City Council
Manager Emergency Response & Recovery, Department of Transport

WA
Senior Emergency Management Officer, Careers at Council
Regional Fire Coordinator, Australian Wildlife Conservancy

NZ
Principal Advisor – People and Capability, Earthquake Commission
Property Project Coordinator, Fire and Emergency New Zealand

Other events

If you are attending any of the events below and would like to meet up with other AWE members, please email us at [email protected] and we will make sure you connect.

10 October Australasian Women in Emergencies Day

12-14 October Natural Hazards Research Australia annual conference – NHRA

7-9 November ISCRAM Asia Pacific regional conference – ISCRAM

Newsletter contributions

The AWE Newsletter is published monthly and is distributed to almost 1600 AWE members across Australasia. For contributions, queries or to let us know what you would like to see in the newsletter, please email us at [email protected].

About AWE

The Australasian Women in Emergencies Network (AWE) promotes, supports and recognises the contributions of women in emergency management and disaster resilience across Australasia.

www.awenetwork.org.au

[email protected]

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AWE acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work, and pays our respect to Elders, past, present and emerging.