Developing a brigade’s standards

 

When Kialla Fire Brigade members wanted to develop core community standards, they turned to North East Region’s Volunteer Sustainability Team (VST) for help.

 

VST then presented a HeartWood Youth Engagement workshop to brigade members in August 2024. This workshop was originally created for CFA by HeartWood Centre for Youth Development in Nova Scotia, Canada to help CFA create safe and inclusive brigades for young people.

However, CFA quickly realised that it applied to all age groups and all brigade sizes. Kialla Fire Brigade Captain Jordan Stone became aware of the workshop when he took part in the Captains’ Peer Mentor Program (CPMP).

“After we did the intro session to HeartWood for one of our CPMP workshops, I approached Jess Skinner (VST) and asked if we could do the three-hour version with the brigade,” Jordan said.

“When I heard the content, I knew it was the direction I wanted the brigade to head in, so it just made sense to do it with this group,” Jordan said.

The workshop was presented to nine brigade members as part of their usual Tuesday night training. One of the main components of the workshop is setting community standards, which are generally done as guidelines for the workshop to ensure that everyone has an enjoyable learning experience. Given that the workshop was for just one brigade, participants took the opportunity to set the community standards for the brigade as a whole.

Jess Skinner, who facilitated the session, said it was a rewarding experience.

“It was such a wonderful experience seeing a brigade that was really invested in progressing their team,” Jess said. “There were great conversations during the workshop and to see the brigade setting some community standards for themselves was very gratifying.”

Jordan said the standards will help the brigade to create a safe and welcoming environment for all.

“Our brigade has been going through a lot of change recently, but having the workshop and setting the standards as a group with external facilitators was great for us. The brigade put a lot of thought into them, and I think it’s helping us to create a brigade that is safe and where people can be themselves,” Jordan said.

The brigade endorsed the community standards that were workshopped that evening at their November meeting.

“CFA has a lot of great standards and values but this was something that our people said was important to them,” Jordan said. “By doing this we have started that culture shift, and everyone feels empowered to pull people up if they do something that is against these. I think this will build confidence in our people so that if a tricky situation arises, they would be able to address it then and there.”

When asked if he would recommend the HeartWood workshop to others, Jordan did not hesitate in saying yes.

“The workshop is a great starting point to change culture in a brigade; it doesn’t matter if you are the smallest tin shed or the largest outer metro-based brigade,” Jordan said. “You get out of the workshop what you put in and I think it is really going to set our brigade culture so that we are ready when new people come on board, regardless of their age.”

If you’re interested in having this facilitated workshop delivered at your brigade or group, email youthteam@cfa.vic.gov.au.

 

Submitted by	Jess Skinner