The Champions of Change Fire and Emergency Group was established in 2017, with support from AFAC.

The group includes organisations located throughout metropolitan, rural and regional communities across Australia and New Zealand, and includes 20 members who are focused on advancing gender equality, women in leadership and professional, respectful and inclusive workplaces within and across the fire and emergency sector.

A particular priority for the Champions of Change Fire and Emergency Group is building the representation of women in frontline service delivery positions which can serve as a critical pathway to leadership positions in the sector.

Key Action Areas 

1. Inclusive Leadership
   Prioritising inclusive leadership and psychologically safe workplaces. This includes identifying and calling out any behaviour inconsistent with safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for all employees and volunteers.
2. Flexible Workplaces
   Identifying opportunities to normalise flexible roles and mindsets around when and how work is completed, enabling better balance between work and personal commitments.
3. Talent Development
   Pursuing gender-balance in identifying and developing talent to capitalise on the diverse experiences and capabilities within and available to our sector.
4. Communication
   Addressing communication, symbols, icons and language that may support exclusionary or ‘boys club’ cultures.
5. Community
   Engaging stakeholders in the case for change on gender equality in our sector, recognising we can be better equipped to represent and engage the diverse communities that we serve.
6. Systems
   Applying a gender-balance, diversity and inclusion lens to the development of policies, systems and infrastructure to create working environments that enable all our people to thrive.
7. Reporting
   Designing and implementing rigorous and transparent reporting systems so we can more effectively track our progress on gender equality.

About the Champions of Change Coalition

The Champions of Change Coalition is a globally recognised, innovative strategy for achieving gender equality, advancing more and diverse women in leadership, and building respectful and inclusive workplaces. In the strategy, men of power and influence step up beside women leaders. They form a high-profile Coalition to lead and be accountable for change on gender equality issues in their organisations and communities – be they local, national or global.

Members cover every major sector of the economy and include representatives from business, government, community, academic and not-for-profit organisations.

The Champions of Change Coalition hosts a number of reports and resources to support gender equality. 

AFAC Diversity and Inclusion Group

The AFAC Diversity and Inclusion Group acts as Implementation Leaders for the Champions of Change Fire and Emergency Group. The AFAC Diversity and Inclusion Group shares and collaborates across agencies and seek to advocate for diversity and inclusion by working with other groups within the AFAC Collaboration Model.