From an emergency management perspective, it has been amazing to implement procedures and processes around covid safety plans and to see how fluid the industry has been with the moving guidelines set by the government. We were able to implement major changes to our operations quickly and effectively to keep people as safe as possible by limiting dwell times and enforcing social distancing in the centre. Unfortunately, as we all know, times of change and crisis can bring out the best and the worst in people and for us that manifests in an increase of displaced travellers in some centres (particularly early in the year as travel shut down and borders closed) domestic violence and mental health issues that will often play out in the centre. When people don’t want to go home, or are feeling displaced, shopping centres are a haven for them. Some people, particularly the elderly would rather risk getting Covid that face the isolation of lockdown. This is a side effect that we will be dealing with long after lockdown has lifted.

For the shopping centre industry, it has reiterated that our centres are so much more than just a retail space, the industry has embraced the need to provide community hubs and a safe space for people to engage. I look forward to further evolution in that space as we move forward in our recovery and beyond.

On a lighter note, one of my favourite challenges is what will happen with Santa if all the borders are closed? I think this year, after everything people have been through from the fires to Covid, a little Christmas magic is needed, and I can say that Santa is coming, crisis averted, and this year’s Santa photos will certainly represent the times we are in.

Paula

If you would like to share your story or thoughts, we really want to hear from you through this newsletter or our social media platforms on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.  Email us at [email protected].

AWE News

The panel reflected on what people see are key qualities of leadership; what we all need from others to support our work and opportunities; and what we thought we need to be practising now for a more accessible, just and effective disaster management/resilience sector.

Thank you Alessia Anibaldi, Scotia Monkivitch and Jillian Edwards GAICD for all your assistance hosting the panel and pulling everything together for us. And thank you Isaia Piho, Kayeleen Brown, Alex Kelly, Nishat Riaz MBE for sharing your wisdom and encouragement and ideas. The Australasian Women in Emergencies Network is in safe hands with members like you alongside. I look forward to taking the conversation to the next level.

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?

This panel discussion will bring together three leaders in bushfire preparedness, response and resilience to explore the unique contributions of women to bushfire resilience.

Speakers:
Amanda Lamont, co-founder of the Australasian Women in Emergencies Network
Jessica Wegener, Co-Chair of the Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation
Jo Dodds, Councillor Bega Shire Council, Founder of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action

The discussion will be moderated by Victoria McKenzie-McHarg, Strategic Director of Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA) and delivered via Zoom.

When: Wednesday 21 October, 5.30 – 7.00pm
Where: Online, via Zoom
RSVP: Please register via this link.

A number of AWE members have been nominated for AWSN 2020 ACTS of BRAVERY & COURAGE Award. Congratulations to Chris Miller, Catherine Dolle-Samuel and Amanda Lamont who have been nominated for this Award.

The nominees are:
Brianna O’Shea from Edith Cowan University
Rebecca Winfield from IAG
Christina Rose from Certis
Sharon Buckland from RMIT University
Chris Miller from B4Crisis
Amanda Lamont from Australasian Women in Emergencies Network (AWE)
Catherine Dolle-Samuel from UNSW
Cyber Volunteers-19 Australia (public page)

Award recipients will be announced on 13 October at the 2020 AWSN Women in Security Virtual Awards Evening.

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

AWE Events

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 26th October @5pm AEST
• Monday 30th November @5pm AEST

Other News

On 2 September the report was tabled in Federal Parliament by Independent Dr Helen Haines MP whose electorate of Indi was impacted by the 2019/2020 bushfire season, supported by other MPs, who spoke passionately about the impact of the 2019/2020 bushfires, and highlighted recommendations such as increased mental health assistance, insurance reform, and, immediate action on climate change. Independent Zali Steggall MP shared her support for the plan in Parliament.

Victoria’s first Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner
The Victorian Government has announced Dr Niki Vincent as Victoria’s first Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner. She will provide independent oversight of Victoria’s Gender Equality Act 2020 and play a key leadership role in promoting gender equality across the Victorian community and workplaces.

Shifting the Power in the Pacific
The Shifting the Power Coalition is a network of women leaders from across six Pacific Island countries that works to support women to lead emergency response and take power back into their own hands – ensuring disaster response addresses women’s needs. Their recently released report, Mobilising Women’s Leadership, provides a series of recommendations to inform and drive localised, women led recovery efforts in the immediate to medium-term through organised advocacy and the provision of gender responsive services.

BNHCRC Survey – Calling young volunteers
Are you a young adult emergency volunteer between the ages of 16 and 25? Share your experience in an online survey to contribute to new CRC research which aims to promote good mental health and wellbeing of volunteers.

Other Events

“Good national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction must be multi-sectoral linking policies in areas such as land use, building codes, public health, education, agriculture, environmental protection, energy, water resources, poverty reduction and climate change adaptation. 
“It’s time to raise our game if we want to leave a more resilient planet to future generations.”  UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori

BNHCRC – Let’s talk disaster risk
Mark Tuesday 13 October in your diary for the free online public forum to acknowledge the UN International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. The latest initiatives at the local, state and national perspective, as well as new research in the area, will be discussed at a free online event hosted by the CRC to mark the UN International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on Tuesday 13 October.

Free registration to this event –
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/rights-limited-human-rights-in-victoria-in-the-time-of-covid-19-registration-122501323757

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. This 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

Starts Tuesday 13 October 8.30pm on ABC + iview.

Keep your eye out for AWE members who appear in the series.

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

Australian Public Health Conference – October 2020
The theme of the Australian Public Health Conference in October 2020 is ‘Public Health Action: Response to bushfires, climate and coronavirus’.
‘How do we use what we know? The practice-evidence exchange in disaster recovery’
Professor Lisa Gibbs & Phoebe Quinn (University of Melbourne), Bhiamie Williamson (Australian National University)
Workshop – 27 October 3:30-5:00pm
‘Indigenous perspectives in disaster recovery and climate change adaptation’
Bhiamie Williamson (Australian National University), Phoebe Quinn (University of Melbourne) Recorded presentation available throughout the conference.

National Rural Women’s Coalition – The Disability, Gender and Rurality Webinar

The National Rural Women’s Coalition invites you to participate in a free webinar hosted by the NRWC and Women with Disabilities Australia on 14 October to discuss the experiences of rural, regional and remote women with disability in a COVID context. Register here

UN Women Upcoming Events
15 – 29 September: – 75th session of the UN General Assembly
24 October: – Redefine Your Limits & Build Personal Resilience Connected Women/Google panel in support of UN Women Australia
4 October: – The Leadership Film Screening and Q&A Session

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.

Earth observation workshop

The current state of bushfire management using earth observation will be discussed at a workshop run by the SmartSat CRC on 12 October. The workshop will draw on the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research of Prof Simon Jones and Dr Marta Yebra. Register now.
https://bnhcrc.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=13fd6141fc28f0a0f7f6e790b&id=f21c30109a&e=04fb18e9f2

Book Launch – Untold Resilience – October 30th
Future Women invite you to join them for an intimate book launch to celebrate the release of our first book, Untold Resilience. On Friday, October 30 we will come together to meet some of the 19 courageous and inspiring women who are featured in Untold Resilience and the Future Women journalistic team. In every town and suburb in Australia, there are women from older generations who have encountered unimaginable difficulties before; women who have endured and survived. Their stories are proof of the incredible resilience of the female spirit.

Date: Friday, October 30
Time: 4:00PM – 5:00PM AEDT
Location: Zoom (details to be provided)
RSVP now and join us for an afternoon of inspiration as we discuss these hope-filled stories from women who have gone before.

NAIDOC Week – 8-15 November 2020
NAIDOC Week celebrations will be held from 8 – 15 November 2020 with the theme ‘Always was, always will be’. For more information visit: https://www.naidoc.org.au/.

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

Senior Planning and Capability (Disaster Management)
City of Gold Coast
https://erecruit1.mercury.com.au/GoldCoast/ViewPosition.aspx?id=tkTM9cSvik4=&jbc=ere
Closing Date – 18/10/2020

Professional Development and Scholarships

Applications for the Part-time MBA Scholarship and the Global Executive MBA Scholarship, both valued at over $60,000, are open now. Click here  or https://www.sydney.edu.au/business/study/scholarships/un-women-mba-scholarship.html?bblinkid=243216719&bbemailid=24373860&bbejrid=1649082580

University of Adelaide – MBA Emerging Leaders
As a one-time offer, 200 scholarships are available to graduates and professionals into the MBA Emerging Leaders program from Adelaide Business School. Read more.

PhD chance to examine NSW rainforests
The BNHCRC is offering a three year scholarship for a candidate interested in completing a PhD in assessing the resilience and sensitivity of temperate rainforest communities to historic disturbance, climate variability and bushfire.

Macquarie Group Scholarship Program
edX is proud to announce the launch of a first-of-its-kind scholarship! The Macquarie Group Scholarship is the first named scholarship in our Access for All scholarship campaign. This $1 million scholarship program is to support low-income and underrepresented groups of learners that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 in the following countries;
Australia, India, United Kingdom, United States.

You may be eligible to receive funds from the scholarship, which can be used for any course or program, including our newly launched MicroBachelors Programs.

Graduate Certificate in Humanitarian Leadership
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-environment-humanitarian-leadership-has-never-been-mcdonald/ . All applications are made via the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership’s online application form: https://centreforhumanitarianleadership.org/application-form

PhD Opportunities for Humanitarians – Centre for Humanitarian Leadership
Are you a humanitarian with an idea for a research project? Are you interested in becoming a ‘pracademic’? Are you keen to build your research skills to contribute to change in the global aid system? If you’ve ever been academic-curious, your study opportunity has arrived.
https://centreforhumanitarianleadership.org/phd-opportunities-for-humanitarians/

Other resources

Indigenous Perspectives in Science Education. Presented by Stiles Education
Want to know the answer to this question?
“Can non-indigenous teachers use the word ‘mob’ when referring to the students in their class? We are not using ‘boys’, ‘girls’ or ‘guys’ are we able to use ‘mob’ when addressing any cohort?”

To support embedding Indigenous perspectives in science classrooms and to create more inclusive learning environments, Stiles hosted a panel discussion with Bruce Ngataierua and Jordyn Pol. Bruce and Jordyn are passionate educators in their respective cultures and have years of experience in the classroom. This was a fantastic discussion, I can thoroughly recommend it. This link has a link to the webinar and also the list of Q&A and the speakers took the time to provide some great follow up information.

We’ve just published a blog post that contains all the information you might be after, including a recording of the webinar, all the relevant resources that were mentioned during the session, and Jordyn and Bruce’s responses to your questions.

BNHCRC HAZARD NOTE  – Promoting fire-fitness: a proactive approach to enhancing preparedness

Research shows that many people living in high-risk hazard-prone areas are often not sufficiently prepared or are not adequately personalising the risk of a natural hazard to themselves. In these situations, proactive strategies that enhance preparedness can help save lives.

Hazard Note 82 presents PhD research conducted by Dr Rachel Westcott at Western Sydney University, in partnership with the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, outlining the practical processes and strategies behind fire-fitness. This research can assist people to safely negotiate natural hazards in an increasingly climate change affected environment by making fire-fitness routine and commonplace.

AFAC diversity and inclusion
AFAC acknowledges the importance of all dimensions of diversity and inclusion. Improving diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace can boost capability. AFAC has developed a diversity and inclusion page on its website which includes a range of links and resources, including a link to the AWE Network.

ESF Conference Papers
At the 2019 ESF scholarship awardees presented an impressive showcase of their mental health and wellbeing related study findings and recommendation as part of the online Emergency Management Conference (EMC). You can find a link to their reports and a recording of their presentation in the ESF IMPACT eNews.

Rockefeller Foundation – Gender Equity: The Way Forward
The past twenty-five years have seen significant advancements for women’s rights in education, health care, political representation, and legal reform. But at the current rate, the gender gap in economic opportunity won’t close for another 257 years. The Rockefeller Foundation is committed to hastening progress towards equity for all women, girls, BIPOC, trans, non-binary, and LGTBQ people, and this month we’re focused in on how we can support innovative solutions to light the way forward.

#MatterOfImpact 
The latest #MatterOfImpact collection centers on the voices of women in rural India, Myanmar, and Nigeria, examining how they became trailblazing entrepreneurs and leaders, and how they’ve adapted to life in quarantine. We also take a look at the compelling evidence for investing in more inclusive leadership. As The Rockefeller Foundation’s Sundaa Bridgett-Jones writes on the need for deeper solidarity within the women’s movement, it’s time to “make way for new voices while joyfully acknowledging that one size most definitely does not fit all.”

Wildfires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change
The Indo-Pacific Research Programme is pleased to release its latest Strategic Analysis Paper, titled Wildfires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change . Until recently, carbon released into the atmosphere from wildfires was not considered a significant component of atmospheric greenhouse gas as it was assumed that over the climatic cycle this carbon would be returned to vegetative re-growth. In Australia this may well be the case. Globally, however, a growing body of evidence suggests that carbon produced by wildfires is making a significant contribution to the volume of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere where it contributes to climate change. The paper can also be downloaded from the Future Directions International website at: http://www.futuredirections.org.au/all-publications/

The Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll
The Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll is the first global study of worry and risk across the world. Explore the World Risk Poll The findings of the World Risk Poll are based on over 150,000 interviews by Gallup in 142 countries including places where little or no official data exists. https://wrp.lrfoundation.org.uk

Why diversity and inclusion matters
Celeste Young reflects on working with diversity and inclusion practitioners in emergency management organisations to support better measurement and management practice. Read her paper on Why diversity and inclusion matters here.

Webinar – Mapping Wellbeing from Social Enterprises
Listen to the recording of Mapping Wellbeing from Social Enterprises – a webinar which presents the results of a 3-year wellbeing mapping project. Speakers include researchers and practitioners in the social enterprise sector.  Watch the recording here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZdALgJ9UoM&feature=youtu.be

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