March 19, 2014
A pilot program designed to give local volunteers the skills to provide on-farm support for drought-affected farming families in the South Burnett will be holding an induction in Kingaroy next week.
“Mates Who Open Gates”, a project by Toowoomba-based Ag Assist farm management consultants, aims to give volunteers a range of mental health training and information to help them provide on-farm support.
“Basically we are looking for people who will be willing to travel to the farmer’s property and provide support so that the farmer can access the appropriate services to help them to deal with any issues they may be facing,” project co-ordinator Julie Winter said.
“We will be offering training to all volunteers, and this will include Mental Health First Aid, an induction and a ‘tool box’ talk on suicide (this is basic prep for the Mental Health First Aid).
“Volunteers will need to get Working With Children Blue Cards and we will provide our volunteers with information, advice and referral options as they help their farmer.”
All costs associated with the Blue Card, catering and training are paid for by the project so the volunteers are not expected to have to contribute at all to these.
The training will take a total of three days.
The induction/toolbox talk will be held in Kingaroy on March 25.
Once training is completed, volunteers will be matched with a farmer.
Mates Who Open Gates will then provide one-on-one support to ensure that both the farmer and volunteer are coping well, and any identified issues are being addressed.
Food hampers for the farmers will be supplied by the Sisters of Charity, The Bush Connection, and the Friends of the Bush Connection.
For more informattion, contact Julie Winter or Rod Saal on (07) 4632-1388 or by email
