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Links & Resources

Some resources are only avail­able to mem­bers and are locat­ed in the Mem­bers Area.

AGEN­CIES & ORGANISATIONS


Recruitment help


Most recruitment processes comprise of both physical and aptitude testing. It's important to have practiced prior to assessment to ensure the best possible results. 

Online assessment or psychometric tips, advice and practice questions from Scaleup by Hudson: https://au.hudson.com/insights/career-advice/psychometric-test-articles/online-psychometric-testing-tips-preparation/


Leadership development leadership resources/guides from Hellomonday by Hudson https://www.hellomonday.co/resources



Leadership development articles from Hellomonday by Hudson https://www.hellomonday.co/blog/


Videos


Video pre­sen­ta­tions from 2020 Emer­gency Man­age­ment Con­fer­ence:


Oth­er Videos:


FRNSW PAT VIDEOS

With the cur­rent COVID restric­tions and social dis­tanc­ing require­ments in lieu of the PAT Famil days that have been held in past years, FRN­SW have put togeth­er a series of videos to help you pre­pare for this years Phys­i­cal apti­tude test (PAT). 

Check them out here:


https://​www​.face​book​.com/​1​7​3​3​4​9​3​3​6​0​3​2​9​8​5​/​v​i​d​e​o​s​/​3​6​8​9​6​1​6​1​4​4​4​00081

https://​www​.face​book​.com/​1​7​3​3​4​9​3​3​6​0​3​2​9​8​5​/​v​i​d​e​o​s​/​7​9​7​5​3​9​1​5​4​3​50988

https://​www​.face​book​.com/​1​7​3​3​4​9​3​3​6​0​3​2​9​8​5​/​v​i​d​e​o​s​/​3​4​4​4​0​2​7​5​6​5​6​59685


CLAIRE ZARA MEMORIAL ORATION 2021

The Claire Zara Memo­r­i­al Ora­tion from the 2021 Emer­gency Man­age­ment Con­fer­ence: Dr Niki Vin­cent, Com­mis­sion­er for Gen­der Equal­i­ty in the Pub­lic Sec­tor on ​“Embed­ding gen­der equal­i­ty in emer­gency man­age­ment planning”: https://youtu.be/nQPrksLjg9c


COVID-19 RESOURCES


Being a first respon­der can be tough at the best of times, at the moment the COVID-19 sit­u­a­tion is chang­ing the way we respond and inter­act on a dai­ly if not some­times hourly basis.
Now more than ever it’s a time to work togeth­er as a team and sup­port each oth­er, if you or some­one you know is strug­gling don’t be afraid to reach out for help. We’ve put togeth­er a list of resources and web­sites to help guide you through the cur­rent pandemic. 


We’re all in this together.


Up to date information

The Depart­ment of Health has the most up to date infor­ma­tion about the COVID 19 outbreak

https://​www​.health​.gov​.au/​n​e​w​s​/​h​e​a​l​t​h​-​a​l​e​r​t​s​/​n​o​v​e​l​-​c​o​r​o​n​a​v​i​r​u​s​-​2​0​1​9​-​n​c​o​v​-​h​e​a​l​t​h​-​alert


Call the Coro­n­avirus Infor­ma­tion Line for infor­ma­tion on COVID-19. It’s avail­able 24/7

1800 020 080


Social dis­tanc­ing

Infor­ma­tion on social distancing

https://​www​.health​.gov​.au/​n​e​w​s​/​h​e​a​l​t​h​-​a​l​e​r​t​s​/​n​o​v​e​l​-​c​o​r​o​n​a​v​i​r​u​s​-​2​0​1​9​-​n​c​o​v​-​h​e​a​l​t​h​-​a​l​e​r​t​/​h​o​w​-​t​o​-​p​r​o​t​e​c​t​-​y​o​u​r​s​e​l​f​-​a​n​d​-​o​t​h​e​r​s​-​f​r​o​m​-​c​o​r​o​n​a​v​i​r​u​s​-​c​o​v​i​d​-​1​9​/​s​o​c​i​a​l​-​d​i​s​t​a​n​c​i​n​g​-​f​o​r​-​c​o​r​o​n​a​v​i​r​u​s​-​c​o​v​id-19


Domestic Violence

1800Respect has infor­ma­tion and sup­port if you or some­one you are con­cerned about are affect­ed by DV

https://​www​.1800re​spect​.org​.au/​h​e​l​p​-​a​n​d​-​s​u​p​p​o​r​t​/​s​e​l​f​-​i​s​o​l​a​t​i​o​n​-​a​n​d​-​c​o​v​id-19


Ser­vices Australia

Ser­vices Aus­tralia has infor­ma­tion on pay­ments you can access if you have been affect­ed by COVID-19

https://​www​.ser​vice​saus​tralia​.gov​.au/​i​n​d​i​v​i​d​u​a​l​s​/​s​u​b​j​e​c​t​s​/​a​f​f​e​c​t​e​d​-​c​o​r​o​n​a​v​i​r​u​s​-​c​o​v​id-19


Men­tal Health

Head to Health has tips and infor­ma­tion for sup­port­ing your men­tal health dur­ing the COVID 19 outbreak

https://​head​to​health​.gov​.au/​c​o​v​i​d​-​1​9​-​s​u​p​p​o​r​t​/​c​o​v​id-19


Mind­ful­ness

Thrive Inside is a spe­cial pro­gram to help you stay psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly healthy while you’re spend­ing extend­ed peri­ods of time at home.

https://​www​.smil​ing​mind​.com​.au/​t​h​r​i​v​e​-​i​nside


Sleep

The Sleep Health Foun­da­tion has ideas for get­ting good sleep in a stress­ful time

https://​www​.sleep​health​foun​da​tion​.org​.au/​g​e​t​t​i​n​g​-​g​o​o​d​-​s​l​e​e​p​-​d​u​r​i​n​g​-​t​h​e​-​c​o​v​i​d​-​1​9​-​p​a​n​d​e​m​i​c​.html


Hand­wash­ing

Won­der­ing if you’re wash­ing your hands correctly?

https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/reports/clinical%20guidelines/ch55g-how-wash-hands-poster.pdf


Childeren

The Wig­gles have released a song to help explain social dis­tanc­ing to children

https://​www​.youtube​.com/​w​a​t​c​h​?​v​=​j​U​m​S​i​L​XesKI


Unicef have tips on how to talk to your child about COVID 19

https://​www​.unicef​.org/​c​o​r​o​n​a​v​i​r​u​s​/​h​o​w​-​t​a​l​k​-​y​o​u​r​-​c​h​i​l​d​-​a​b​o​u​t​-​c​o​r​o​n​a​v​i​r​u​s​-​c​o​v​id-19


Playschool have released an episode to help explain COVID-19 to kids

https://​www​.abc​.net​.au/​a​b​c​k​i​d​s​/​s​h​o​w​s​/​p​l​a​y​-​s​c​h​o​o​l​/​c​o​v​i​d​-​1​9​/​1​2​1​14308


Sun­shine Behav­iour­al Health
https://www.sunshinebehavioral… 


Podcasts


  • South York­shire Chief Alex John­son: Lis­ten to Alex’s inspir­ing jour­ney through the ranks of the fire ser­vice as she rose to the rank of CFO and her pas­sion for the job and the peo­ple she leads.
  • The For The Wild pod­cast revis­its the 2019/2020 Aus­tralian bush­fires with Vanes­sa Cavanagh, Rachael Cavanagh and Deb Swan.
    Togeth­er they dis­cuss the 2019/2020 fire sea­son, how and why it was unlike tra­di­tion­al fires sea­sons, and the dif­fer­ence between cul­tur­al burn­ing and wild­fires. Vanes­sa, Rachael and Deb also share the role of Indige­nous women in cul­tur­al burn­ing and offer their unique insights into what needs to be done mov­ing for­ward. 
    https://forthewild.world/liste…
  • Behind the Shield Episode 349: Dany Cot­ton spent over three decades serv­ing with the Lon­don Fire Brigade, retir­ing as Com­mis­sion­er. In this pod­cast Dany dis­cuss­es her jour­ney into the fire ser­vice, forg­ing diver­si­ty through men­tor­ing, the impact of bud­get cuts on ser­vice and health, vio­lence on first respon­ders, hero­ism at the Gren­fell Tow­er fire, dirty pol­i­tics and much more. If you’ve nev­er heard a leader speak with pas­sion and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty around for­mer­ly taboo
    sub­jects like men­tal health and PTSD then this is the pod­cast to lis­ten to.
    Lis­ten via sound cloud on the Beyond the shield web­site 
    here.
  • WAFA Vice Pres­i­dent Stephanie Looi was inter­viewed for The Broad Expe­ri­ence Pod­cast Episode 155: Fire­fight­er. Star­ing along­side Steph in this episode is anoth­er vol­un­teer fire­fight­er, Kassie Stevens, who vol­un­teers with her local fire depart­ment in Okla­homa. You can lis­ten to the pod­cast or read a tran­script of the show
    They dis­cuss the chal­lenges that come with the role of a fire­fight­er, bal­anc­ing vol­un­teer­ing with their oth­er com­mit­ments but also the deep sat­is­fac­tion that comes from help­ing oth­ers. 
    Lis­ten here.
  • From Ger­many the B5 Aktuell ​“Woman of the Week ​“fea­tur­ing WAFA Pres­i­dent Quinn Cramer. To lis­ten to the pod­cast click here, for an Eng­lish trans­la­tion of the first part of the pod­cast click here.


JO REYNOLDS, UK'S FIRST FEMALE FIREFIGHTER

In this episode/​conversation, UK’s first female fire­fight­er Jo Reynolds speaks can­did­ly to Steve O’Malley about her adult life decisions.

Div­ing head first into a career in the last bas­tion of mas­culin­i­ty, fire­fight­ing. The world back in a Thatch­er led Eng­land in 1983 was much small­er and for a woman enter­ing the fire ser­vice much tougher. Hav­ing fought against the odds to become the first career fire­fight­er in the UK, Jo’s yearn­ing to spread her wings and take on what the rest of the world had to offer took hold and after 4 years as a fire­fight­er it was on to her next series of life’s chal­lenges and adventures. 

The adage, once a fire­fight­er always a fire­fight­er holds true with Jo, so 35 years after her adven­ture began she felt com­pelled to tell oth­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly young women and girls about her achieve­ment in her book FireWoman. 


A spe­cial thanks to:

Jo Reynolds
https://​www​.josephine​-reynolds​.com/


Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty
https://​www​.vu​.edu​.au/


Women and Fire­fight­ing Aus­trala­sia Inc

https://​wafa​.asn​.au/


Aus­tralasian Fire and Emer­gency Ser­vice Author­i­ties Coun­cil

https://​www​.afac​.com​.au/


Bush­fire and Nat­ur­al Haz­ards Coop­er­a­tive Research Cen­tre

http://​www​.bnhcrc​.com​.au/

Diversity & inclusion in emergency management: from policy to practice


How do we effectively implement diversity and inclusion policies in emergency management sector practices?


This was the focus of the Diversity and inclusion: from policy to practice online forum hosted by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC in conjunction with Women and Firefighting Australasia (WAFA), Victoria University and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) on 2 December 2020.


With over 150 people in virtual attendance, the forum presented the Diversity and inclusion framework for emergency management policy and practice, developed through the Diversity and inclusion: building strength and capability project to provide a basis for practitioners to address diversity and inclusion issues through a strength-based approach, which builds upon current practice and expertise in the sector.

The all-female panel discussed the evolution of inclusive practice over the last decade, the purpose of diversity and the critical role inclusion plays in the management of social, human and natural hazard risk in communities and organisations. The three panellists also explored what is at risk and explained why diversity and inclusion is a business imperative and why investment to build capability in this area is now critical.


Co-lead of the Diversity and inclusion: building strength and capability project Celeste Young from Victoria University presented the Diversity and inclusion framework for emergency management policy and practice, the Learning as we go: developing effective inclusive management support document, and other supporting materials that have been developed by the project to support inclusion practitioners' management and measurement in this complex and challenging area, including the phases of the diversity and inclusion transformation process, framework components and key activities that support embedding diversity and inclusion risk into existing systems. She also challenged common assumptions about the value of practitioners’ work and how it can enhance service delivery and create safer and more resilient organisations and communities. Celeste wrote a blog in September describing the framework and its importance, which is available to read here.


“Diversity is what creates the change and inclusion is how you manage it,” she said in her presentation.

“Whenever you put diversity, which is essentially difference, into a system, it creates change. If you want to manage the risk that this creates, it is really important that inclusion is used because that is how you manage this type of risk.”


Quinn Cramer, QFES Station Officer and WAFA President, spoke on the role WAFA has to play in diversity and inclusion policies by discussing policies and best practice insights, including future directions and opportunities for the future of women in firefighting. She discussed a range of WAFA documents that have been developed to assist organisations in creating more inclusive and safe workplaces, and the complexities of diversity and inclusion in practice. Two of these documents - the WAFA outcomes statement and WAFA-QFES workshop evaluation report - are available to download. In her presentation, Quinn outlined some practical steps for recruitment, leadership and mentoring, and health and wellbeing.


Some of these steps include:

  • reviewing language to ensure respect and representation
  • developing social media policies and presence to directly recruit women and support them as firefighting cadets
  • adopting strategy, policy and practice to reach gender equity in leadership in emergency management services
  • including diverse leadership models in leadership training to ensure the capacity to address the challenge of contemporary and future emergency management
  • recognising post-traumatic stress, and post-traumatic growth, as unexceptional risks in the work
  • recognising the profound impact harassment and discrimination have on top of the normalised emotional load and recognising the role of institutional courage in confronting discrimination and harassment and its power to transform organisations
  • addressing the gendered health and wellbeing of the job, which requires thoughtful consideration for the whole team.


Rachael Utumapu spoke on encouraging more women to join emergency services agencies in New Zealand as the Manager of Women's Development at FENZ, and what diversity and inclusion initiatives have already been implemented in New Zealand. She spoke on recruitment being viewed in two parts—attracting the right people to an organisation, and knowing who existing members are and what their perception and experience of the organisation is.

“Attracting diversity to the organisation is the first challenge, and the second challenge is ensuring they have a good experience,” Rachael said.


She also outlined FENZ’s journey to creating a positive workplace culture, which considers:

  • behaviours and conduct in the office
  • a shared code of behaviour
  • living values
  • support for all people
  • a bullying and harassment complaints process
  • policies and procedures.


Access and download all the above mentioned resources on the forum event page.


The full recording of the forum is available on the CRC Hazard Channel. The forum saw a fantastic discussion on diversity and inclusion, and plenty of thought-inspiring questions came through that couldn’t be answered in the hour of the event, so all the panellists recorded a follow up panel Q&A session to keep this important discussion going and answer all the questions received. That video is also available on the CRC Hazard Channel.

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