Five Years of Fleurieu Future Leaders Story by Zoë Kassiotis. Photography by Jason Porter.
Above: 2017 Fleurieu Future Leader participant Matt Newlands with Charles Manning – with their Thursday morning walking group.
Late last year, the completion presentations of the 2021 Fleurieu Future Leaders Program (FFLP) marked two major milestones for the program: five years and one hundred alumni. Since its inception in 2017, co-creators and behavioural scientists Charles and Janice Manning have invested their time, energy and wealth of knowledge to empower these one hundred people to help activate a vision for the region’s future. Ron Logan, Chair of Fleurieu Community Enterprises (the umbrella company for the Fleurieu Community Bendigo Banks) has been wholeheartedly involved in the program from the beginning. He’s become somewhat of a FFLP mascot, keenly sitting in on most sessions. Ron sees Charles and Janice as heroes for delivering the program to the Fleurieu. ‘Five years later it remains the most important single sponsorship our local bank supports each year,’ he says.
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As we approach the sixth year of FFLP, we revisit a cross-section of past participants to hear about their experiences following the program: what’s changed for them, where they’re going and what it all means for them personally and for the community. Mental health advocate and consultant Matt Newlands first met Charles at a fitness bootcamp and then at a local men’s group. The former police officer was navigating his own mental health journey and exploring his intention to support others with their challenges when he applied for the first FFLP. ‘I knew I would benefit from developing my leadership knowledge and skills, as well as building my network in the community,’ Matt says. He sees his everexpanding FFLP community network as a forest. The comparison is apt – where trees use their underground networks to share resources and send distress signals, the FFLP alumni have found their aboveground connections to be just as responsive and supportive. The face that manages and coordinates the rainbow of stalls we know and love as the Willunga Farmers Market, is market manager Jenni Mitton. ‘I thought the program would be the perfect way to enhance my relationship with the community. I wanted connections across the Fleurieu that are deeper than just business colleagues,
