Girls Rock 2017

Girls Rock – The Leadership Journey

Hundreds of Victorian Girl Guide Leaders attended Guides Victoria’s Girls Rock conference.

For the first time, the annual gathering for adult Guiding members was held at the Moonee Valley Racing Club. The focus this year was on The Leadership Journey and the organised workshops covered topics related to leadership, volunteering and coaching.

Our Ballarat Guide Leaders enjoyed the day out and the opportunity to learn alongside other Leaders.  Our outgoing Region Leader, Erica Ferguson, was presented with the Emu Award for service across various appointments.

Discovering Resilience

Hugh van Cuyenburg – The Resilience Project

Hugh spoke of his personal experiences and insights into building resilience.  He provided alarming statistics on the mental health status of females and primary school aged children and acknowledged that Guiding is helpful in providing girls an environment where they feel they can speak freely and be themselves.

After stating that our minds in Australia are wired to identify negatives, Hugh explained a system of rewiring our brains to scan the world for positives focusing on the concepts of:

• Gratitude
• Empathy
• Mindfulness.

We will all, undoubtedly, be more vigilant about acknowledging what we have, and being grateful for #dismoment.

Emma Gee

Emma Gee spoke of her experience rebuilding her life after a stroke and how it is possible to bounce back from such adverse situations.

She focused on the necessity of:

• resilience
• citizenship
• and being proactive rather than reactive