Movember is here again!

Join us in taking up the challenge this Movember! Whether you’re growing a mo’ or moving your body, it’s all for a good cause.  

Movember supports over 1,300 men’s health projects around the world, tackling some of the biggest health issues affecting men: mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer.   

We’re proud to be a regular participant in Movember to raise awareness, understanding and action around these significant health issues. 

The most important thing you can do this month is check in with yourself or check up on the men in your life. Get those regular assessments done with your health provider. Do it for yourself, do it for your mates, do it for your whānau. 

Fire and Emergency is also committed to providing you with the support you need to remain in good health and has a variety of options available to help you and your whānau through challenges you may be facing. More information can be found here.(external link) 

Movember is special to us, as our own Whanaungatanga programme is partly funded by the Movember Foundation as part of their endeavour to develop evidence-based mental ill-health and suicide prevention programmes for veterans and first responders.   

The Whanaungatanga programme is led by a team of firefighters and managers, and utilises firefighters and ComCen personnel to develop and implement organisational change interventions. Through consultation with our people and the support of world leading researchers and clinicians, the programme drives change by identifying and minimising organisational factors that contribute to mental ill-health and promoting organisational factors that contribute to wellbeing.  

The programme was initially and continues to be piloted in Te Hiku across the career stations. It has now been expanded to capture our three Communication Centres.You can learn more about the Whanaungatanga programme here(external link).  

Getting stuck into Movember helps to fund projects like Whanaungatanga and make a real difference to the lives and health of men around the globe. 

Get involved

If you’re keen to take things a step further, you may like to get involved in the Fire and Emergency Movember challenge. Last year, we raised an impressive $36,428 as part of the First Responders Challenge, but we lost the shield in the First Responders Challenge – let's get it back this year. Sign up for the challenge here(external link)!

You can go traditional and grow the mo’(external link), make a move(external link) by running or walking 60km over the month, or you can ‘mo your own way’ and take on another challenge of your choice. There are plenty of ideas on the Movember website(external link). 

This is a great opportunity to start a kōrero with your crew.  

Please send your pictures to communications@fireandemergency.nz if you want us to share your mo-ments!