Charlotte Varcoe
THE bridge between migrants within the Naracoorte community and its emergency services is being filled.
The Naracoorte Country Fire Service (CFS) attended an event hosted by the Naracoorte Migrant Resource Centre to showcase what roles volunteers could play within the community.
Following the event, a number of members from the migrant community attended the local brigade’s training and provided a further interest in volunteering.
Region Five commander Jason Druwitt said the heart of any CFS brigade was around community involvement.
“The CFS is about the country and people in our communities which are a part of that and want to be a part of our service to provide that service back to our community,” Mr Druwitt said.
“We need to make sure our brigades also mirror our community demographics whether that be females, males but also cultures as well.”
He said when looking at Naracoorte, there was a large migrant community within the town with regional volunteer officer Damon Whitwell leading the charge behind engaging with them.
“That led to an information session where we were invited to with a whole raft of community organisations talking to the migrant communities and there was a really good response to the CFS with people wanting to know how they can get involved,” Mr Druwitt said.
“The following week, we did a few information sessions at the Naracoorte brigade with members of the community and they came in and gained a bit of an understanding as to what it is the Naracoorte brigade does and what the CFS means to the Naracoorte community.”
He said this then led to a community barbeque held at the regional headquarters with about six community members making applications to join the service.
“Once their national criminal history check comes back they will start training,” Mr Druwitt said.
“When we think about volunteerism in Australia, we traditionally think about what we have known as volunteerism from our perspective and some of our members have been in the brigades because their parents were and it was just something you do.”
He said many Australians had that understanding of volunteering and it was something those from overseas may not have.
“People coming into our communities from overseas have not grown up around the same societal norms,” Mr Druwitt said.
“They do not understand or may not have an understanding about emergency services.
“We need to be mindful that we can reach out to our communities and tell them, talk to them about what emergency service volunteering looks like in Australia and the value we can put back into the community because these people are so community minded.”
Mr Druwitt said he was aware not everyone wanted to volunteer for emergency services with many opting to volunteer for local sporting clubs as well.
“We need to show them things are different here in Australia and how we do our emergency services work and we value every member who can provide anything to the community, whether it be one hour a day, one hour a week or one hour a month and they do not necessarily have to go out in the front of a truck to be a valuable member of an emergency service because there are also supports we need behind the scenes as well,” he said.
“I am always amazed at the volunteers of the CFS as they give so tirelessly to the state and to the community they live in and their communities just outside of where they are.”
Naracoorte CFS brigade training is on each Wednesday from 7pm.
