Green Cross Australia held the second annual Extreme Weather Heroes Summit 30-31 January in Queensland, Australia. Experts from media, social networking, climate science and emergency management fields were bought together for intense sessions discussing the future of emergency volunteering.
The weekend brought together young emergency service volunteers and leaders from around Australia from agencies such as Australian Red Cross, State Emergency Serivce, Rural Fire Service, Surf Life Saving Queensland and St John Ambulance.
The Extreme Weather Heros programme aims to use social networks to enable young emergency volunteer leaders to reach out to many thousands of young Australians to encourage them to get skilled and get involved in volunteering for emergency services.
The goal is to inspire 20,000 people under the age of 30 to become active volunteers with one of Australia’s eighteen emergency response agencies over the next three years in order to be able to properly respond to the increased severe weather predicted by climate scientists.