Burnout workshops to support local community

The Northern Rivers community will have an opportunity to learn from leading burnout experts across March and April in a series of free workshops presented by Ballina Shire Council.

In the wake of the devastating floods in 2022 and through community consultation, Council has identified an increase in community and volunteer burnout and has developed a series of workshops aimed at burnout prevention and recovery to support the local community.

“Our community is experiencing high levels of ongoing stress and burnout,” said Laura Woolcott, Community Recovery Officer from Ballina Council.

“The floods have added to the workload of the entire community, service providers, organisations, businesses and especially our volunteers. We want to better support people to take care of themselves with tangible strategies as well as wellbeing programs.”

The first free Burnout Prevention and Recovery Essentials Workshops will take place on Wednesday 20 March at 12 noon in the Richmond Room in Ballina with lunch provided. The second workshop will take place online at 5:30pm on Thursday 4 April, with a possible third workshop on Wednesday 8 May 2024.

Leading Australian burnout researcher, Sally

Clarke is part of the team from Human Leaders who have designed the tailored workshops, and with colleague Alexis Zahner will be delivering them directly to the local community.

“Burnout is rife at the moment, but it’s also very preventable,” Clarke said, “It’s a result of chronic workplace stress — which also impacts carers and volunteers — and has been so normalised in our modern society.”

“And whilst burnout is a result of stress, it directly impacts the individual, so there is a lot we can do to empower people to take care of themselves to prevent burnout or support them to recover from it.”

The burnout workshops will focus primarily on identifying burnout, its symptoms and causes, and offer support to people to put personal strategies in place to protect themselves from burnout.

Supported by the Ballina

Council’s Community Recovery team, these events are part of various community wellbeing activities taking place from March to May. All events are open to the entire community to attend. Registration is appreciated.

To register for the burnout workshops or learn more about any of the upcoming community wellbeing activities, visit ballina. nsw.gov.au/communitywellbeing-activities