Leadership project wraps up

DEVELOPING the skills of the region’s emerging leaders was the aim of the Leadership Ballarat and Western Region experience, an initiative of the Committee for Ballarat which recently wrapped up.

Focused on community leadership and effecting change in areas important to the locality, LBWR members participated in the closing retreat Zoom session to discuss their successes and failures.

The forum’s facilitator Ellen Jackson was joined by LBWR participants, representatives from some involved community organisations and several Committee of Ballarat staff members.

As part of the program, the participants were split into five syndicate groups who each devised an area of improvement and a corresponding project throughout the year.

During the recent online closing forum, the groups all shared their concepts, learnings and future direction for their projects.

Group members one of the five groups spoke about their efforts in researching and planning to reduce loneliness within the region.

“We decided to do a survey and decided to focus it on pre-COVID, post-COVID and how people were feeling about isolation,” group member Melissa Knight said.

“The fact that over 500 people were willing to complete the survey shows there’s something there in the community.

“Just to see the impact, when you hear those stories, it makes you realise even if you do something small you can have a huge impact on people’s lives.”

The other syndicate groups looked to explore, strategize and recommend improvement in areas including reinvigorating Ballarat’s hospitality industry, discovering your passion, connecting our homelessness with support services and loving where you live.

In addition to the projects and presentations devised by each of the groups, many of the members spoke to the experience of gaining confidence, building friendships and professional relationships, and becoming more socially aware as a result of the initiative.

Angela Vestage said her group projected to kick start an Eat Out to Help Out campaign and ended up growing as a group during the year.

“We all came into the programs as equals and made ourselves vulnerable and shared our personal stories,” she said.

“We’ve created special and unique relationships within our groups and our syndicates, and I’ve gained a great deal of confidence.”