BCH receives $35,000 to develop leadership skills

BELLARINE Community Health (BCH) has received $35,000 to develop a Bellarine region-wide collaboration to enhance the leadership skills of health and community sector leaders.

The project was one of five across the Corangamite electorate funded under round two of the Federal Government’s Building Better Regions Fund Community Investment stream.

BCH chief executive officer Shane Dawson said the funding would help develop leadership skills not only in the health sector, but also at a broader community level.

“We believe that no health profession has all the answers to all the health issues and no single provider has all the necessary resources to meet the health needs of a community, because many determinants of health fall partly, or wholly outside health domains.”

The BCH project, which will cost a total of $70,000, will provide an umbrella for primary health care professionals, alongside community sector colleagues, to develop leadership skills.

“By strengthening leadership capacity, engaged leaders have the potential to take effective action which can address social determinants of health like employment, transport and education,” Mr Dawson said.

“This project will encourage leaders to work together to apply a whole of system approach to ensure that incremental social and health change is consistent.”

Federal Member for Corangamite Sarah Henderson said the community-based projects were a positive investment in the region’s future.

“This is a fantastic outcome for our region with five projects receiving over $274,000,” Ms Henderson said.

Minister for Regional Development, Territories and Local Government John McVeigh said the Building Better Regions Fund continued to deliver major benefits for rural, regional and remote communities throughout Australia.

A full list of successful round two projects under the Community Investment stream are available at business.gov.au/bbrf.