The Fairley Leadership Program helps to provide successful community-minded applicants with the opportunity to build upon their leadership skills which can in turn lead to more positive contributions being made to the community.
Individuals who are involved in community initiatives or groups and are looking to advance and make a bigger impact in the community are considered the ideal candidates for the program.
Mr Green said the application process was quite involved.
“Terry Dodds at Murray River Council sent out an email notifying staff that the program was looking for applicants. I put my hand up and said I was interested,” Mr Green said.
“I had to write out a lengthy application and have an interview before being accepted.”
Mr Green found out that he had been successful in attaining the position just before Christmas in 2021.
The program will involve seminars and talks, which will be conducted by experienced community leaders.
“There will also be something called an immersive, which is where they will basically immerse us into the community to help solve particular community issues,” Mr Green said.
Mr Green has taken on the program with sponsorship from the Country Fire Authority, but also with support from the Murray River Council which is his employer.
He holds a position as an officer at the Echuca Fire Brigade while simultaneously working as the manager of technology and digital services within the council.
Mr Green started working as a firefighter in 2000 at the Swan Hill brigade.
Since then he has worked in a number of brigades in metro Melbourne, the outskirts of Melbourne and now in Echuca.
He also volunteers with the NSW Rural Fire Service.
“I’ve worked in the CFA on and off for about 20 years. I have over eight years of service and I make about 125 calls a year with them. It keeps me pretty busy,” Mr Green said.
Prior to applying for the Fairley Leadership Program, Mr Green had to discuss with his wife whether it was feasible for him to take on the program.
“It's something that my wife had to agree to as well because I spend a lot of time working with the CFA — about 20 to 30 hours a week and that’s on top of me working my regular 35 hours a week,” he said.
“The program will run from March through until mid-November. It's a fairly intensive program and a big commitment.”
Mr Green said his family had been completely in support of the decision, which they believed would benefit him greatly in the future.
In terms of what Goulburn Murray Community Leadership has in store for participants in the program, Mr Green said a lot of it had been kept under wraps.
He mentioned the first retreat for the program started on March 18.
Mr Green had the opportunity to meet the other 22 successful applicants of the program.
“They gave us some media training and basically gave us an insight as to what the program will cover over the next 12 months,” he said.
Regional Leadership Victoria also attended and spoke to all of the up and coming leaders.
Mr Green said the program was an invaluable learning experience.
“I hope to become a better leader,” he said.
“I want to set myself up to become a leader within the CFA and I also want to use this experience to help me with people management skills in my role within council.”
With a strong interest in community resilience, Mr Green hopes he can explore this specialised area throughout the course of the program.
Resilience is the ability of a community to withstand and recover from disasters by looking at strategies and resources that could reduce the devastating impact of events, such as fires or floods.
“Resilience amongst the community as a whole is something that I’m very interested in looking at,” Mr Green said.
“I’m excited for the year ahead.
“I’m also just looking forward to seeing what the future will bring in completion of the program.”
The Fairley Leadership program now has more than 600 graduates across the Goulburn Murray region and beyond.
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