On the Road - Thelma without Louise

Set out on the road all alone for the HunterValley - soon got into the swing of things - especially when I arrived at the Blue Tongue Brewery - blue tongue is a disease in the UK - here it is a beer! Relaxing by the pool after a bit of wine tasting was just what I needed after Sydney....

Jolly good Winston Churchill Fellows say goodbye to Sydney

It was great to say goodbye to the friends I had met in Sydney who helped me so much - left to right - Vanessa Shahani, Southampton City Council, UK, Cath Lawrence, Motion Consulting, Ian Krimmer, NSW Fire Service, and Matt Jones from Social Alchemy. Later Antony Sprange helped me celebrate the last night in Sydney in monsoon weather - more like Singapore than Sydney!

Bondi just like Brighton

Thanks Sabrina - had a lovely walk around Bondi with you - even though it was typical British weather!

BBQ with Ian Krimmer

Thanks to Ian Krimmer and his wife Megan who invited me to a BBQ with a group of their friends from their Church group and we had such a lot of fun. The fire car got me there and back in double quick time!

A truly Inspiring day

The next stop on the next day was Inspire - and wow! Do these guys live up to their name! what an engaging and empowering place to work - if work is the right word these guys probably dont see it that way. Thanks Matt O'Connor and Atari Metcalf - two of the smartest young people I have met in a long time and their programs Act Now and Reach Out are truly inspiring.

After that a contrast - a more formal environment at the University of Sydney but equally fascinating and Joe Kabalan has achieved huge things with recruiting and managing volunteers for big events like the Olympics - for World Youth Day among other things. Joe was a star and helped bring these events to life for me. Thanks Joe.

More exciting things followed but no time to update you on that yet - but it involves fire cars and flashing lights....

The Red Cross to the rescue

Just to grab your attention - I actually just met with Danny Croucher at The Red Cross who was very helpful in answering every single question I had prepared in my research! Thanks Danny and sorry I forgot to take your photo!

Kathleen Vella from the Youth Mentoring Network also was incredibly helpful and introduced me to Caron Rooks who runs an e-mentoring program for The Smith Family which has showed higher levels of satisfaction amongst young people in the last year's survey than other programs that include face to face mentoring.

I also had time to fit in another quick bike tour round the city and went on to meet Julie Easy from Mission Australia who runs a coaching program called Elevate, linking young people who need help with employability and leadership skills with corporate coaches. A fellow Brit - we had plenty to talk about over a bite to eat - this project is not good for the wasitline!

Monday Morning - Igniting Community Spirit

The Centre for Volunteering - what a team!

I met with Lynne Dalton, CEO and Kristin Romanis, Communication Manager and Maia Giordano, Youth Volunteer Program Manager. Lynne is known as one of the most authoritative figures in the volunteer world. Her organisation set up and sponsors the volunteer conference to celebrate the successes and achievements of the volunteers in corporate, youth and over 60 sectors. I attended this event on my arrival last week at Parliament House and it was certainly successful in 'igniting community spirit' - the slogan for The Centre for Volunteering. Lane Beachley won the ambassador award and many other special people were honoured. Last year there were 170 entries, this year 445 - next year who knows?!

The team gave generously of their time and knowledge so that I will have plenty to populate my report at the end of the project. This will be published on http://www.wcmt.org/ for organisations that need information on how to recruit, retain, recognise and reward volunteers and mentors for young people.

After this meeting I met with a Winston Churchill Fellow from 1992 who again was very generous with his time, kindness, enthusiasm and help - a very BIG THANK YOU to the Superintendent Ian Krimmer of the New South Wales Fire Brigade pictured above. Ian has already been extraordinarily kind and shared his experiences of his Fellowship which investigated fire setting by young people in the US and UK and was highly significant in making changes to the way this problem was tackled.