Junior Leaders from as far away as Merbein, Swan Hill, Lakes Entrance, Chiltern and Benalla attended the camp which commenced on Friday evening.
The camp was also attended by BASOs from Districts 4,5,6,7 and 8 who participated in all of the activities in order to help support their junior brigades by having a better understanding of the program.
The weekend provided the Leaders with workshops on such things as Program Planning, Team Building through Games and Activities, Behaviour Management strategies, how to address Conflict, as well as advice and information about Youth in CFA .
When asked what the best part about the camp was, everyone cited the Saturday night performance that saw 6 teams develop a 5 minute performance on the benefits of volunteering. The performance had to include, push ups, star jumps, a song, crazy costumes in team colours, and reference to a vegetable!
“It was amazing to see the difference in interpretation of the instructions”, said Sherri McKerley Youth Programs Manager. “It was so funny, and the way everyone worked together, when they had only met less than 24 hours before was a sensational effort in teamwork”, she said.
But by far the best part of the camp, as with the previous camp was the networking and information gained by interacting with other junior leaders.
It also gave CFA staff the opportunity to reinforce, aims, objectives and guidelines, whilst clarifying misunderstandings and problem solving.
The skills that they learnt over the weekend provided them with the extra know-how and understanding to continue to do their important work with our young people in CFA.
“I have been here for 12 years and I continue to be amazed by all the dedicated people we have as our junior leaders” said Sherri. “I commend them for being willing to step outside their comfort zone, be challenged, openly share ideas and issues and for giving 100% to the team.”
Here is just some of the feedback we received about the Junior Leader Camp from the participants:
- It met my expectation 110%
- The teamwork and networking was the best part, the opportunity to learn and share with other leaders from so many brigades….
- I would absolutely recommend it to all Junior Leaders
- I will definitely change the way we run our Junior brigade for the better
- Coming along and listening to everyone and the CFA staff makes me feel that being a Junior Leader is really important… I had never felt that way before
- I wouldn’t change a thing about the weekend it just had so much information, fun and teamwork…I need to go home and process it all
- What I learnt this weekend will make a big difference me in our program
- Best CFA training I have done.
- I realized that I am not alone, everyone has the same issues, I now have others to turn to for advice
- Can I come to this camp again…pleeeeze?
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