Cherbourg Leadership Program
The first Cherbourg Community Leadership Program was held in 2025, with six locals taking part in the pilot program!
Module 1 was completed over two days in May against the beautiful backdrop of the Bunya Mountains where participants:
🌿shared their stories and values
👍increased their personal confidence, and
👏explored healthy communication and conflict resolution methods.
Module 2 took place in June, with participants again returning to the Bunya Mountains (complete with cozy fire this time🔥) to:
😊discover the difference between management and leadership
💪activate creative problem solving, and
✅learn useful frameworks to support them in their leadership journeys.
Pilot Program 2025
Photographed after the Graduation Lunch at the Bunya Mountains Tavern are participants Stacy Christensen, Kim Barrett, Chrissy Collier-Bond, Emma Turaganivalu and Nicola Tizzard with Red Earth Program Manager Amanda Woodward and program facilitators Lindsay Davies and Aunty Linda Biumaiwai (absent from photo: Chantal Harth).
𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙜 𝘾𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙢…
Red Earth Community Foundation has been running a regional Community Leadership Program at the Bunya Mountains every year since 2014. The Program now has over 240 Alumni throughout the Burnett Inland... many of whom describe the experience as transformative and empowering.
In 2024, Red Earth was privileged to have the opportunity to activate a place-based leadership program for the Cherbourg community. Drawing on their experience of running a successful leadership program for over a decade, and the alignment with the organisation’s purpose to “invest in people”, Red Earth began the journey of developing and delivering the first Cherbourg Community Leadership Program.
Through community consultation with Elders, Council, local organisations, community members and local leaders, strong themes for the leadership program emerged, which formed the foundation of the program.
The Bunya Mountains was confirmed as a culturally significant and beautiful location, and the four-day format was decided on through collaboration.
Red Earth then worked with program designers and facilitators Lindsay Davies and Aunty Linda Biumaiwai to bring the program to life. The program outline was endorsed by the Elders Advisory Group and participants were nominated for the pilot program!
Looking to the future, the program has been designed with the intention of raising up leaders from within Cherbourg that will take carriage of this program... ‘leading from within’. Over a three-year transition period Lindsay and Aunty Linda, supported by Red Earth, will share their knowledge with identified local leaders in order to equip them to lead the program in the future.
It is Red Earth’s hopeful anticipation that the Cherbourg Community Leadership Program will retain the ‘Magic of the Mountain’ that is experienced during its flagship Red Earth Community Leadership Program... and that participants have a transformative and empowering experience.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑔 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑑 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐺𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡’𝑠 𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝐶 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝐹𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐹𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑅𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 & 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑅𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑙 (𝐹𝑅𝑅𝑅) 𝐹𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐹𝑢𝑛𝑑’𝑠 𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝐼𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚.
Responses from Participants of the 2025 Cherbourg Community Leadership Program
Excellent facilitators.
Great balance of perspectives and
delivery of information.
Excellent for emerging leaders.
The program helped me overcome self-doubt and understand that I am capable of my leadership position.
The Bunya Mountains is the perfect place for this gathering.
Red Earth is a champion supporting Cherbourg and developing this program for community.
Learned some fantastic tools and frameworks.
Red Earth thank you for this amzing program. I see its potential. This will help shape our current and future leaders and role models for sure !
Deadly!
I am now leading the way with more knowledge.
Facilitators were top tier great people and made me feel so understood and welcome.