The Girls Fire and Resilience Program gives young women the opportunity to experience behind the scenes of a range of fire and emergency service agencies. 

Each student learns a variety of different skills including how to work with and extinguish fire, manage accident and disaster simulations, test their physical prowess, learn the science beyond fire and disaster management, and meet representatives from local fire and disaster service agencies.

Girls on Fire is an evidence-based physical, emotional, intellectual and social-connection based program  activities sees our camp participant redefine what personal confidence and resilience mean. All while allowing participants to explore life as a fire and emergency worker or volunteer in a safe, supportive and hands-on environment. 

It aims to provide girls with a working knowledge of:

·       What it takes to be emergency-ready through an interactive and immersive display of practical, theoretical, and technical skills in firefighting and emergency services

·       Engaging with the community and working as teams towards a shared goal through individual participation, leadership, teamwork, communication and resilience

·       How to prepare, prevent, manage and recover on a physical, emotional, intellectual and social level when disaster strikes

·       Problem-solving within teams and as an individual by leaning to collaborate within a team and achieve outcomes for complex challenges

·       The steps to take and the science involved with acting on climate change in real, tangible terms

·       Gain the experience to decide if a career or volunteer path in emergency services suits their future goals.

The interest in Victoria and working with students from the area has been years in the making. Girls on Fire is working with Monash University’s School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education in the Faculty of Education and senior lecturer, Dr Karen Lambert, to measure the impact of the Girls Fire & Resilience Program. This includes its ability to increase or improve knowledge of fire and emergency safety and services, self-efficacy and self-confidence within participants, resiliency on an individual and community level, the perceived competence to pursue career or volunteer service roles, and perceptions of social connection and belonging tied to community engagement.

The generous ongoing support of the principal partner, NAB, has made working within Victoria possible.

Limited places for the two-day Fire and Resilience Program in Ballarat remain.

March 17-18 at the Victorian School of Forestry, Creswick, Victoria.

To sign up for the program, head to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevu4N9I87sJ0VwQCFZRRPqH36kh0c5mB3wYVyWe0Ka53Gzpw/viewform