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Rebecca, Roving reporter

Teenagers in Emergencies

Would you know what to do in a flood or a bushfire?

Chances are, not really. This is what year 9 students Jess Bedggood, Amy Foster, Tim Liddell and Sam Montague are trying to change with their Teenagers in Emergencies booklet (new window), a resource that offers specific and easy to understand guidelines about how young people can help out in emergency situations.

Empowering teens

The four Maffra Secondary College students developed the project in response to their experiences during the 2006-07 bushfires and floods that badly affected the Gippsland region.

Approved by the Country Fire Authority, the Victoria State Emergency Service and the Victorian Department of Human Services, the 31-page booklet is now being released by the Victorian Government's Department of Education and Early Childhood Development as an important resource for young people.

"Our aims with the project were to produce a booklet that would enable teens to be empowered," Tim said.

"With our experience, we felt useless, because we were sent away from the emergencies. So we hoped to produce something that would allow teenagers to know what to do."

Jess added that teenagers could be a valuable resource during fires or floods, and that the information in the booklet could help change the outcomes of an emergency situation.

"There was very little information out there for teenagers," she said. "(So) our first aims were to complete a booklet that would help teenagers plan, act and respond to an emergency."

The 2006 fires: Sam and Tim's experiences

When Sam first heard about the fires that were threatening his Eastern Gippsland home, he wasn't too worried.

"They were a fair distance away, and I had the mindset, 'It will never happen to me'," he said. "But soon, smoke filled the skies for weeks on end."

All throughout the hot, rainless summer, preparations were made. School was let out two weeks early, and Sam remembers days of waking up to smoke so thick that he couldn't see 20 metres in front of him.

"At night you could clearly see the glow of the flames on nearby hills and mountains," Sam said. "Christmas was coming up, but no one really cared. They were all too worried."

On Black Thursday, 14 December 2006, the fires were only one kilometre from his family's property, and Sam remembers the sky turning black in the afternoon.

"Day suddenly turned to night as a massive cloud of black ash swam over us," he said. "There was no wind, no sound. Everything had gone quiet."

At Tim's home in the foothills, those dry, windy days were just as eerie.

"Burnt out embers started falling," he said. "The sky went black... and as the afternoon wore on it turned orange. One weekend I was sent away to my Nana's, which was disappointing, because I wanted to help. That is one of the reasons for the project."

It rained on Christmas day, finally bringing some relief. In the following weeks, the fires burned themselves out, and only black land remained. The fires had lasted for over 60 days.

Developing Teenagers in Emergencies

When Tim, Sam, Amy and Jess were in year 8, they decided to apply for The Alpine School, a nine-week leadership program for year 9 students. As part of the program, the students had to devise and implement an original community learning project.

"We decided on Teenagers in Emergencies as we had all been affected by the fires and floods, and there was a lack of information for teens," Tim said.

"We sent out a survey to see how the teens had been involved in the emergencies, and used that information in our booklet."

130 students participated in the survey, which helped to give the group a good understanding of what teenagers knew about flood and fire preparation, and what they wanted more information about.

After that came a long process of researching, planning, talking to local community groups, cross-referencing with emergency agencies, collecting photos and fundraising.

"We eventually got the final draft completed after lots of after school and weekend work," Tim said. "We had an opening night to release our booklet… and it went out in the mid-year student reports. We also had a fire and flood fun day at school with the year 9s, and that went down really well."

Plan, act, respond: A message to teenagers

Teenagers in Emergencies has been praised by officials as an inspiring initiative that really demonstrates what teenagers are capable of. So far 3000 copies of the booklet have been distributed.

"Overall, the feedback has been great from our age group, lots of encouragement and recognition," Sam said. "It's also good to let the adults know that teenagers aren't just kids - we're young adults, and we can do many things if we are given the chance."

The group's efforts were commemorated at the Fire Awareness Awards in early October , where they were presented with the RACV Insurance Fire Safety Grant. The grant gives them $10,000 to extend the project and distribute the resource more widely.

"The message is to be cautious and not take risks," Tim said. "Communicate, and make sure you know what to do."

"It's serious, it's not a game," Sam added, "and you need to know what you're doing, when you're meant to do it and how to do it safely."

You can download a copy of Teenagers In Emergencies from the Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner (new window). And for a personal perspective on bushfires, check out the digital stories from Shawnee and Angela about the Grampians bushfires in 2006, and the video interview with Nikola White about the 2009 Kinglake bushfires.

For more articles about community and activism, check out our Articles archive.

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