Welcome to Blue Connections, Life Saving Victoria’s networking event series connecting the aquatic industry, members, emergency service personnel, education providers and interested community members to connect, share and grow through professional and personal development sessions.
The events create a unique opportunity for participants to make personal connections with inspiring thought leaders and storytellers from all walks of life and gain valuable insights impacting and developing personal and professional lives.
In 2023 Blue Connections is moving to tri-annually and we have three incredible speakers lined up this year.
Upcoming Breakfast Event
Session Three: Leadership in Health and Wellbeing
Speaker: Grant ‘The Stong Man’ Edwards APM
Date: Tuesday 10 October 2023
Time: 7:45am for arrival – 8am to 9am session
Location: The Timber Yard – 351 Plummer Street, Port Melbourne 3207
CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS
Session Overview:
We are thrilled to welcome Grant Edwards APM to deliver LSV’s final Blue Connections networking event for 2023, launching the Aquatic Industry Summit!
This special Blue Connections breakfast, coinciding with International Mental Health Day 2023, is themed; Leadership in Mental Health & Wellbeing.
Significant gaps unfortunately exist in understanding mental health leadership, governance, education, and training, and the influence organisational culture has on help-seeking behaviours. This presentation will introduce constructive and actionable processes to address these gaps to support you and your teams.
We now invite you to register and join us for this breakfast to hear Grant share his powerful story and advice from his 34-years of distinguished front-line service, managing his own mental health challenges, to hosting on behalf of the AFP two global mental health symposiums.
Meet Grant:
Grant retired from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in 2019 at the rank of Commander after a 34-year distinguished career. His Policing career was diverse including postings to Los Angeles and Washington D.C as an AFP Liaison Officer, Timor-Leste as Mission Commander and advisor to the Secretary of State for Security in the Timorese Government and to Afghanistan as Mission Commander and Deputy Head of the International Police Coordination Board.
He is a passionate advocate in the field of mental health. His personal lived experience was shown on the ABC’s Australian Story in 2017. Whilst in Washington DC he hosted on behalf of the AFP two global mental health symposiums for police and single handily pulled a 178 tonne C-17 US Military Globemaster in the USA to raise awareness for mental health in first responders to help crush the stigma surrounding mental health issues police officers face.
In 2019 Grant published his memoir titled “The Strongman” and has also been published across a number of highly recognised journals regarding police and first responder mental health.
Since retiring, Grant devotes his time for increasing services for better mental health for not just in policing but society-wide.
Grant holds a master’s degree in leadership, policy and governance studies (Charles Sturt University), a Bachelor of Arts (Australian National University) and have graduated from the FBI Law Enforcement Senior Executive Program.
Blue Connections breakfast event tickets are just $50 per person
CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS
