Government funding allows Salvation Army to train emergency volunteers
SAES Director, Norm Archer, in front of the new mobile feeding unit. (Photo: Shairon Paterson)
An injection of NSW Government funding into The Salvation Army Emergency Services (SAES) will allow the service to better train its volunteers.
A series of Salvation Army Emergency Services corps coordinator conferences have been organised throughout the state, with the first one held at Penrith last month.
“The aim is to acknowledge and honour the local leadership of Salvation Army Emergency Services across NSW,” says Director of Emergency Services, Norm Archer.
The conferences will train SAES corps coordinators on the latest techniques, processes and regulations. They will also allow SAES management to gather feedback on a range of changes it plans to make to its operations next year, that will enable it to more efficiently meet local and state government guidelines on health and safety.
“We are on a journey of modernisation,” explains Norm. “The first conference at Penrith was just fantastic… we spent all of Saturday and Sunday morning going through all of the details of the different aspects of emergency services and some new projects and directions we want to head, so I sought delegates’ input into all of those different activities.”
In the past financial year, SAES teams in NSW, the ACT and Queensland responded to 45 disaster incidents, with 1510 volunteers serving more than 36,000 meals to people affected by disasters and other emergency services personnel.
State-of-the-art portable shelters have been purchased to enable Salvation Army Emergency Services to set up large temporary accommodation, food service areas and welfare offices on site in a disaster zone. A large mobile feeding unit has also been built and was used in western Sydney during the January 2012 floods. Another unit is being constructed for use in southern Queensland.
But despite the big investment in SAES infrastructure this year, Norm says resourcing volunteers is even more important.
“We want to honour these volunteers that work in emergency services and lead the local teams,” he says.
Four more SAES corps coordinator conferences will be held across NSW before the end of the year.
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