Jo brings wealth of passion and experience to new WA role
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
Jo Harding is the new Western Australia Response Coordinator for Salvation Army Emergency Services (SAES).
She fills a role which has been vacant for several months now, bringing a wealth of passion for emergency response and long-term experience in the sector.
Major Bindy Lupis, SAES Senior Program Manager, Response and Wellbeing has praised Jo highly, saying that even before meeting her, she had a “really good feeling”.
“I was relieved when her interview confirmed it. It had been a huge few months in WA with a lot of uncertainty,” Bindy said.
“The team over there have done an amazing job but had been waiting for a new leader and the stability that brings. Jo has definitely been worth the wait.
“I have loved getting messages from some of the team thankful for her and feeling excited about this new chapter under her leadership. Jo has also already met and is building great relationships with her counterparts in the other states and some of them have also commented about what a great fit to the national team she is.
“Jo brings years of emergency management experience to the team, but it is also her warm and friendly personality and her collaborative approach to leadership that stands out. I am looking forward to this new chapter for Emergency Services in WA and will be cheering Jo and the team on.”
Salvos Online journalist Kirralee Nicolle spent some time with Jo, finding out about her background and what she brings to the role.
So, tell me about how you came to be in this role at the Salvos. Where were you before this?
Before I began in this role, I finished 15 years with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES). I’ve done quite a few different roles throughout DFES, however I’ve been in Incident Management Teams (IMTs) and Pre-Formed Teams (specialised, multi-agency IMTs) throughout that time, so in various roles responding to DFES incidents. I’ve experienced being on the other side of the Salvos truck, I’m a bit of a people person and I’m well known for having all the connections! That assists me in this role because particularly in WA, SAES’ main client is DFES. I’m very mindful that in this role there’s a rresponsibility to ensure that we provide the quality and the safety that they’re expecting, and if we can exceed that, then all the better.
What got you into the emergency responses sector originally?
All of my roles have been very community-centric. For me, it’s about my connection to volunteers in the community. Here at the Salvos, the volunteers are passionate about helping their community and they’re helping other volunteers (firies) who are also passionate about helping their community. And that’s the perfect sort of thing for me.
It sounds like you guys definitely have a busy few months ahead. Tell me, outside of work, what are some things you like spending your time doing?
I really enjoy a daily walk. I think it just helps reset your day or set up your day, depending on what end of the day you do it. This wintertime, I’m tending to go in the evening to reset my mind after a long day of learning new things. I also enjoy reading and spending time with my family. My daughter also recently got a new puppy, and he is a lot of work to train and manage, so that has been taking up a lot of my time! We have pets in this house already, so there’s a lot of logistics to manage around animals here at the moment.
I love that you are so invested in relationships with volunteers, they truly are the backbone what we do here! What are you most looking forward to in this role?
I’m looking forward to working in the family environment that we have here at the Salvos. I’m excited about getting a cohesive group together, so that we can go out and do what we’re passionate about. I'm looking forward to the season ahead. We’ve got some stuff to get through first, preparations and training to do, and all of that’s part of it. But, I’m looking forward to working with everybody to support the community. It’s gonna be fun.
