The East Grampians Health Service and Beaufort & Skipton Health Service SFF team have recently completed their second SFF first year project for 2006 with the fantastic support of WDHS. We have been fortunate to secure a small amount of funding support from Grampians Pyrenees Primary Care Partnership, Ararat Rural City Council to run programs in the area. Our second program was a much younger population of farm families from the Ararat Rural City area of Tatyoon which to us is exciting as the magic of SFF can occur earlier, and in our own backyard.

The learnings that we have taken away from this, and our first program have been huge..We believe that we all have grown so much in terms of our presenting and facilitation skills as this is such a vital component to each programs success. Being able to draw out valuable and meaningful information from our participants in the workshops we have found that it is so important to what each group learns and how deeply instilled it becomes in relation to each farm family members health. To be able to consolidate knowledge that a participant may already have known but not actively addressed through this process is so rewarding to us as presenters 'you can almost see the penny drop'. The relationships and trust that you build with your groups participants is so individual and important to each program's success as well. Its important to say this as we sometimes take our skills as professionals for granted and SFF has highlighted that we can certainly add value to farming health outside of the traditional health setting. Its rewarding to feel at the end of the day 'yeah we really did make a difference'

Comments made by the second first year participants:

• "Sustainable Farm Families course was a terrific course - Highly recommended and very informative."
• " Very good beneficial course and very informative - thank you!"
• "Casual, friendly and open atmosphere, at a good pace"
• "Not too invasive/but still very informative"
• "Relaxed atmosphere. people happy to speak out"
• "Getting together in a group and able to discuss as a group - with many laughs"
• "Great information received here and to take away. Good social and friendly feel between tutors and all participants"
• "Chance to discuss issues in a group"
• "Hearing of health issues and examples from others"

East Grampians Health Service and Beaufort & Skipton Health Service held their first Sustainable Farm Families Program on July 10, 11.

The three Sustainable Farm Families Facilitators were Andrew Smith and Sue Campigli for East Grampians and Bronwyn Cuthbertson from Beaufort Skipton who had completed a 2 year Train the Trainer program with WDHS. The 2 days were most successful and well supported. Here are a couple of snaps from the days.

Well done!

WDHS is thrilled with this initiative that was supported through the Department Human Services Train the Trainer program.