Overall, I feel lucky; I have retained my health, my job and my home. But not everyone has been so lucky. There are many people living in Victoria who have lost loved ones, who have faced unemployment, who have lost their businesses, or who have lost their homes.

In addition, there are people who are unlucky because they live on low incomes, live with a disability or a mental health issue, don’t speak English, face homelessness or face the threat of family violence. These people face significant challenges on a day-to-day basis, and emergencies and disasters only serve to amplify these challenges.

I have been heartened by how the community, emergency and health sectors have worked together to respond to the pandemic in a way that recognises that not everyone experiences the impacts of emergencies and disasters equally. Community organisations have largely been supported in their efforts to ensure that existing clients and new clients receive the services they need. New policies and rules to protect public health have largely acknowledged the additional needs of many of Victoria’s community members.

These responses have highlighted how important it is that all sectors work together before, during and after emergencies and disasters to ensure that the unlucky and less fortunate members of our communities are better met.

As lockdown ends and our restrictions ease, I have reflected on my luck, both personally and professionally. I am lucky, and incredibly grateful, that I have retained my health, my job and my home. I am lucky, and thrilled, to be working with such dedicated emergency and health professionals who have steered our state back to health. I am also lucky, and proud, to work with community sector professionals who focus their efforts on supporting people who are vulnerable or disadvantaged day to day as well as before, during and after emergencies.

Bridget

AWE News

We have really enjoyed working with you as NSW Chapter Lead Catherine and we look forward to continuing to work with you and see you as you continue to support and develop the AWE network in your new home in Bathurst.

If you’d like to get in touch with Catherine you can contact her at [email protected].

THANK YOU Catherine and all the best. 

We are looking for a new AWE Chapter Lead for NSW, if you are interested in finding out more about what this role enatils, please email us at [email protected] or contact Amanda Lamont at [email protected].

AWE AGM and end of year celebration – 17th December

Save the date!

All members are invited AWE’s AGM and end of year celebration from 5pm (AEDT) on Thursday 17 December.

We’ll share the financial year’s achievements at the AGM all our members, followed by a fabulous networking event to celebrate all things AWE.

Members will receive an email invitation with further details soon.

AWE Facebook Group

With the success of our page on Facebook, we thought it would be a logical next step to have a Facebook Group where we can share information, opportunities, questions and ideas with each other informally. Please join the private group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1675647902614156/. This is easier way to interact, and enables members to chat and share directly with our AWE members. The AWE Committee strongly encourages two way conversation so please reach out to the Network via this group to ask for help and share information, events, ideas and challenges.

If you would you like to help and haven’t had a chance to get in touch with us yet, we’re still looking for people with a range of skills to contribute. If you’d like to be involved, please contact us at [email protected]

AWE Vice President, Amanda Lamont recently participated in a panel presentation hosted by Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA) on the role of women’s leadership in bushfire resilience. The link to the video to watch the panel presentations and Q&A session can be followed here https://vimeo.com/472078262.

Co-panellist, Kylee Clubb, Director with the Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation also featured on the 3rd episode of ABC’s Big Weather about the importance of cultural burning.

Women play a critical yet often overlooked role in how communities are preparing for and responding to bushfires. With climate change significantly increasing the threat of bushfires, how can we better understand, value and encourage womens’ leadership in all its forms so that all threatened communities can become bushfire adapted and resilient communities?

You can receive notification of future WELA events, subscribe to the newsletter www.welaprogram.org.au

Send your images and stories to [email protected]. Be sure you have approval to send us the stories and images.

AWE Events

Dr Mac (aka Dr Hannah Macdougall, VICSES) will be back on Monday 30th November for our final Mindfulness and Breathwork session. If you want to improve your physical, mental and emotional health, restore, manage stress, and grow areas of the brain related to attention, learning and emotional regulation, don’t miss these sessions.

Sessions include:

• Meditation and mindfulness myth-busters
• Weird, wacky, and meaningful insights from research around the world
• Experiences of the buffet of mindfulness and breathwork exercises
• Q & A

No previous experience is necessary.

The sessions will run on the following dates (and will also be recorded for you to catch up on later).

• Monday 31st August @5pm AEST – view recording
• Monday 28th September @5pm AEST – view recording
• Monday 28th October @5pm AEST – view recording
• Monday 30th November @5pm AEST

Join Zoom Meeting
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/88446386726
Meeting ID: 884 4638 6726
Passcode: 285099

* Times
WA – 2pm
NT – 3.30pm
Qld – 4pm
SA – 4.30pm
NSW, Vic, Tas, ACT – 5pm
NZ – 7pm

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions you would like ask of us or Dr Mac before the session.

Other News

Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements

The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements has published its report. The report includes more than 80 recommendations to improve Australia’s national natural disaster arrangements.

The report is available on the Royal Commission’s website.

Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements – Report [accessible] [PDF]
Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements – Appendices [accessible] [PDF]

“We also heard of the social and cultural value in restoring the role of Indigenous women in land management. Vanessa Cavanagh, an expert on Indigenous fire management, told us of the unique values, interests and responsibilities that Indigenous women have to maintain on Country and the benefit of specific strategies that support Indigenous women to be more involved in these processes.”

We were lucky to have Vanessa attend the recent AWE Conversation Series on the role of indigenous women in land management and provide some useful insights and resources.

The 2019-20 Bushfire History Project was an initiative of the Royal Commission into the National Natural Disaster Arrangements. It provided an opportunity for people to record their personal experience and share photos and videos taken during the 2019-20 bushfires or the ongoing recovery.

The Royal Commission is pleased to publish a selection of photographs from the 2019-20 Bushfire History Project.

Stay connected to the ABC in an emergency
The ABC has launched a new Emergency website (abc.net.au/emergency) which aggregates information from key national and state emergency services. The new website allows users to search for nearby incidents; check on emergency events in other locations around the country; and connects the user with their nearest local ABC Radio station. ABC Radio emergency broadcasting remains the single most important means of delivering emergency information and warnings to local communities.  For more information and for local campaign assets please contact [email protected]

Big Weather (And How to Survive It)

During the 2019-20 Australian Black Summer of bushfires, Craig Reucassel gained unique access to Australia’s emergency services, first responders and local communities to film this emotionally gripping series filmed over the summer. The three-part series, Big Weather (and how to survive it) delivers an urgent and entertaining message of how our weather is changing and what we can do to survive it.
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/big-weather-and-how-to-survive-it

Explore Mt Resilience

How can Australian cities adapt to our changing climate and the big weather events of the future? Take a look in Mt Resilience, a mobile augmented reality experience that explores a city designed to help its residents thrive and survive into the future. Resilience is about more than just great design, technology and the ability to cope. It relies on how we live, how we run our economy and how we support one another.

Take a look around here.
Mt Resilience is best experienced on a smart phone or tablet, but there is a desktop version too.

Host your own Big Weather Get Together 

It’s not always an official in an orange uniform who you turn to for help first during an extreme weather emergency. Often, it’s the people who are already there — your family, and your neighbours — who act as your ‘first responders’. Communication with neighbours is one of the most important factors in preparing for, responding to and recovering from extreme weather events.

Read and share our guide to help you and your community get #ReadyTogether.

2020 UN International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction webinar, hosted by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, with ABC TV’s Big Weather (and how to survive it) documentary series.

If you missed something, want to revisit key points, or share the experience with friends and colleagues, the replay is now available on the CRC’s website.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence
In 2020, the Municipal Association of Victoria is again supporting Respect Victoria to deliver its Respect Women: Call it Out campaign from 25 November to 10 December as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. All 79 Victorian councils and 17 specialist non-government organisations (NGOs) have signed up to take part in this year’s initiative which will enable significant reach across diverse settings and communities in Victoria. Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria (DVRCV) and Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) are also partnering with the MAV and will be providing their expertise. Read more

National Rural Women’s Coalition – Let’s get through this together

Share your story. What have you done to overcome your difficulties?

Tell us something about:

• How has your life changed COVID19?
• What have you done to overcome your difficulties?
• What are you doing for your physical or mental wellness?
• Do you have any neat tricks, tips or hacks that has made #stayathome easier?
• Make it funny! Humour may help another RRR woman.
• No commercial content please (think ABC rules)

Please send us:

• a MP4 ( video from a smart phone / tablet) 1 – 2 minutes max OR
• a written up to 250 word story plus photo

Send to: [email protected]

In the email please include your name and where you are from. Please note: by contributing you are agreeing all work is your original ideas and words and that you give permission to the NRWC to use/replicate in full or in part your contribution for marketing and distribution on all NRWC social Media platforms and reports.

https://nrwc.com.au/lets-get-through-this-together

Other Events

NAIDOC Week –

Always Was, Always Will Be. recognises that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this continent for over 65,000 years.

Jolie Wills, NZ AWE Chapter Co-lead – Decision Fatigue: It’s all too much –  Tuesday 10th November 2020

Disaster recovery is messy and complex and it also requires you make A LOT of decisions. Making too many decisions can take its toll on you. Repeated decision making saps your mental energy, reduces your willpower and increases the probability of making irrational choices. This is called decision fatigue.

Australian Red Cross Disaster Recovery Advisors and Mentors Australia (DRAMA) invites you to join  disaster recovery expert and cognitive scientist Jolie Wills as she shares her valuable insights on how the mind works under prolonged pressure, how we make decisions and how our reactions and behaviours are impacted by stress.

Jolie is a leading psychosocial expert in disaster and disruption and Co-Founder and Director of Hummingly. She is a survivor of the Christchurch earthquake and has lived disaster recovery with her family first-hand.

Discussion topics will include:

• The second 6 months of disaster recovery
• The impacts of prolonged stress in bush fire-affected communities
• Impact of continuing stress on thinking, decision making, emotions and action
• COVID – added social and financial impacts on individuals and families resulting from isolation.

8:30am AWST | 10:30am AEST | 11:00am ACDT | 11:30am ADST | 1:30pm NZT:

Online via Zoom  – Please register by clicking on this link.

Please send your questions for Jolie through to [email protected]

Please feel free to share this invitation to your network.

Can’t join? Recordings will be made available at:

Person-centred Emergency Preparedness (PCEP) Toolkit
Safety and resilience for people with disability and chronic health conditions depends upon the capacity of service providers to promote personal emergency preparedness planning with the people they support. Evidence demonstrates that their unique combination of skills optimally places community, health, and disability service providers to increase the resilience of people with disability to disaster – starting with the routine interactions they have with the people they serve.

Community, health, and disability service providers who provide support and services to people with disability in the community, and their managers are invited to join our 4 part webinar series.

Webinar 1: Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness Toolkit (20 October)
Register: https://lnkd.in/gpNa8UG

Webinar 2: Disaster Management and Recovery Toolkit (3 November)
Register: https://lnkd.in/g7DJmeY

Webinar 3: Understanding your role in times of disaster (17 November)
Register: https://lnkd.in/ghaeWkF

Webinar 4: Inclusive and collaborative working together in times of disaster (1 December)
Register: https://lnkd.in/gjePQaX

2021 Humanitarian Leadership Conference
The 2021 Humanitarian Leadership Conference will be an immersive, online event and the most accessible conference yet. With a heavily reduced registration fee, it will be a fully inclusive experience for all humanitarians.

The 2021 Humanitarian Leadership Conference will interrogate what a genuinely transformed humanitarian system can look like; where the affected communities, local organisations, and their national governments are the ‘humanitarians’.

The Conference will challenge traditional humanitarian systems, actors, and perceptions with discussions on:

• Decolonising the humanitarian ecosystem
• Leadership in a world of upheaval and crisis
• Transformative ways of working
• The political economy of aid and solidarity.

Submissions are now open until 1 December 2020.

Full details are available on the website, or get in touch with our team if you would like to discuss your idea.

Equal Employment Opportunity Network (EEON) – Conversations from the Heart!
The last EEON virtual event for the year is on the 9 December 12.30 – 2.00pm.

Conversations from the Heart!
A relationship grows in positivity and strength when grounded in a foundation of truth. What is your organisation doing to walk together with courage? Join Aboriginal leaders Karen Milward, Stephen Walsh, Sara Alden and Karen Jackson for our last virtual event of the year on “Conversations from the Heart”. We are proud to partner with the Australian Intercultural Society for the fifth year in a row.

Our panel will discuss the following

• A reflection of 2020 and its challenges and learnings
• How Aboriginal organisations have maintained what they do in 2020
• Black Lives Matter
• Uluru Statement from the Heart
• Treaty, including laying the foundations, decision making framework and the story so far, including conversations with government and community
• Economic empowerment and security – removing hurdles to recruitment
• What we can learn, how we can listen, how we can heal?

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices have often led discussions at EEON forums and Summits. We recognise the significant contributions that our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make to our country and our society. We are grateful for their generosity, knowledge and continued guidance.

Please come along for a thought provoking and heart-warming conversation that will inspire you and change how you approach 2021.

Get your tickets to the event here.

Webinar: Bushfire Trauma Preparation and Recovery – Enabling the Emergency Services Sector – Friday 13 November 2020

Phoenix Australia invites you to join a free interactive webinar for leaders in the emergency services.

The webinar will present some of the long-term learnings from the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, and discuss best practice ways to ensure your workforce is psychologically prepared for the coming season.

A suite of tailored trauma-related training programs for emergency services personnel will also be launched.

Friday 13 November 2020 – 11:00am – 12:00noon (AEDT)

Register here

The webinar will cover:

• What do the 2009 research findings tell us about impacts and recovery?
• How does this help prepare your people now?
• Learn about best practice strategies to support your people
• Hear from an emergency services leader about their experience and learnings, including supporting volunteers
• Learn about the training programs available

Panellists include:

• Stephen Griffin, CEO, Victoria State Emergency Service
• Nicole Sadler, Head, Policy and Practice, Phoenix Australia
• Jane Nursey, Director, Clinical Services, Phoenix Australia

UN Women – Trek for Rights 2021
Are you ready for an Australian adventure like no other? Trek for Rights 2021 offers you the exciting opportunity to participate in a physically challenging trek in our own beautiful backyard, while virtually connecting with, and fundraising in support of, Rohingya refugee women and girls in Bangladesh.

This is your chance to experience one of Australia’s most spectacular and scenic areas; Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain National Park from 25–29 October 2021. Forge life-long friendships, as expert guides lead you across a landscape of glacially carved valleys, ancient rainforests, fragrant eucalypt forests, and beautiful alpine meadows.
Download the information pack to find out more
Today, more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees live in the largest refugee camp in the world, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Crowded living conditions and limited access to sanitation and healthcare make Rohingya refugee women and girls living in these camps particularly at risk of COVID-19 and its shadow pandemic of violence.

If there are other events you are attending, please let us know so we can let other members know about them. It would be great to have an AWE presence at these events, including side events, members wearing their AWE badges, poster displays, presentations, displays. Please get in touch with the AWE Committee at [email protected] if you would like further information on how to get involved.

Job Opportunities

Professional Development and Scholarships

Master of Indigenous Business Leader at Monash University
The new Master of Indigenous Business Leader at Monash University might be a perfect fit for any Indigenous person aspiring to have a career in business leadership in the not-for-profit, public or private funded sectors. It’s open to all Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and will be delivered via residential mode (Part-time: 4 7-day blocks a year for 2 years) to allow students to study and continue their work, family and community commitments. Please check out the website link and pass onto to anyone within your networks that may have people interested in this course. Applications close 27 November 2020.

If you would like more information, please email [email protected].

https://www.monash.edu/indigenous-australians/study/master-of-indigenous-business-leadership

She Told Us So
CARE spoke with 6,000 women across 40 countries to fill the data gap on the effects of Covid-19. They used this data to conduct a rapid analysis, resulting in four recommendations to inform a more equitable, effective COVID-19 response, and a more equal future for everyone. Read more here.

How to Maintain Strong Friendships as You Move Through Your Career
What the science of regret says about work–life balance and prioritising close relationships from the archives of Kelloggs School of Management.

Grant Opportunity – Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship – Round 3
GO ID: GO4391
Agency: Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources
Primary Category: Science
Close Date and Time: 17-Nov-2020 5:00 pm (ACT Local Time)

Other resources

You matter. So take a few minutes to learn and apply self-care techniques that strengthen your mental health and resilience.

We would love to hear from more of our members, there are many great successes we would love to hear about.