Central Highlands SES volunteers say the most recent Women in Rescue training event in Pykes Creek was a resounding success.
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Founded in 2018, the Women in Rescue event is designed to celebrate women in emergency operations, with women from across the region gathering to share skills, support one another, and have fun.
Sunday's Pykes Creek Women in Rescue event saw women from SES units in the western region come together, with a focus on the practical components of rescue operations, including water and land search, map and navigation and casual handling skills.
SES Ballarat community resilience coordinator Jane Patton said the participants gained a lot of knowledge from the day.
"Everyone enjoyed themselves. It was nice to be able to learn off of each other.
"It was about thinking outside of the box, 'this is going to be a challenge, how do we get through that?'.
"It was also a safe environment where we could make mistakes."
Women from other emergency service organisations, such as Ambulance and the police attended the event to participate in training scenarios.
The event also aimed to promote gender inclusion and diversity within SES, and to encourage the recruitment and retention of female volunteers.
Currently, 1655 of all 4893 SES volunteers - 34 per cent - are women.
Ms Patton said it was important to promote women in emergency rescue roles, as it gave a much needed point-of-view for rescue crews.
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"I think in general, having equity across emergency services in important," she said.
"When you are called to a request for assistance in the community, sometimes we come across sensitive call outs
"People might response better to a female than a male and vice versa.
"We know that promoting all participation, whether female or male, is really important connect to the community and believing in what we do, and we demonstrated that today."
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