Stepping Up
Stepping Up
Podcast Description
Celebrating Community Leadership.
This four-episode series speaks to thirteen community leaders about how they each harnessed and developed new skills in the face of disruption — featuring the voices of some of the Bega Valley's most active and creative emerging leaders. They share insights about how the Far South Coast NSW not-for-profit sector is now planning collaboratively for the future, through a place-based capacity building partnership program.
From the regions to the cities, this series teaches us all how we can become better and more influential leaders in our homes, workplaces and communities.
Series Image by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash
Series Music “As We Make, We Mend”, by Dean Gray & Anna Martin-Scrase (Wolumla School of Music)
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
Each episode explores themes related to community leadership, resilience, and capacity building within the not-for-profit sector. Topics include the holistic approaches taken by community leaders, challenges faced in rural settings, and strategies for building sustainable communities. For instance, the episodes feature community-led initiatives post-Black Summer bushfires and COVID, alongside discussions about intergenerational change and addressing disenfranchisement.
Celebrating Community Leadership.
This four-episode series speaks to thirteen community leaders about how they each harnessed and developed new skills in the face of disruption — featuring the voices of some of the Bega Valley’s most active and creative emerging leaders. They share insights about how the Far South Coast NSW not-for-profit sector is now planning collaboratively for the future, through a place-based capacity building partnership program.
From the regions to the cities, this series teaches us all how we can become better and more influential leaders in our homes, workplaces and communities.
Series Image by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash
Series Music “As We Make, We Mend”, by Dean Gray & Anna Martin-Scrase (Wolumla School of Music)
In this episode we cover everything from the big plans and ambitions of community groups, to how we think about the building blocks of what leadership is, and how we support and foster a strong community sector.
“Allowing the community to excel and thrive has been evident in this program, where we’ve worked with people that they felt heard and listened to, and then trusted to go and do what they considered was the right solution, or the solution for this place; and it is the people of a place that will make that place better or stronger or more engaging…” — Carolyn Ardler.
You’ll hear from Carolyn Ardler from the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, Nicole Weber from Quality Matters Consulting, Alex Boulgakov from Renewable Cobargo, and Vanessa Spinelli from Grow the Future. Each has been connected to the IRCF Program (Investing in Rural Community Futures Program). The IRCF’s aim is to support and strengthen the capacity of grassroots NfPs, enabling them to have a positive impact on overall community well-being. In less than two years, the program engaged about 150 organisations and trained 45 community leaders in the Bega Valley Shire.
We’re excited that The Bega Valley Investing in Rural Community Futures Program was a finalist at the NSW Resilient Australia Awards (2024), and was “Highly Commended” in the Resilient Australia Local Government Award category.
A critical aspect of regeneration is the way in which it illuminates what a community needs.
The Bega Valley was hit hard by the Black Summer bushfires, so the idea of regeneration is both literal and figurative. A crisis is a turning point for any community — a time when local people face overwhelming challenges, placing community leaders at risk of burnout. In the wake of significant disaster, when day-to-day life has been so utterly disrupted, communities galvanise in unprecedented ways, and are often inspired to reimagine the future. This can result in the initiation of hugely ambitious projects, as people are reinvigorated by seeing the power community collaboration and connection have to ensure the sustainability of community groups and not-for-profits (NfPs), and the leaders who help drive them.
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Episode Image by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash
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