It’s been a big week for Sally Downie.
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The Jemalong dairy farmer spent last week in Canberra with the opportunity to address national leaders, and the weekend in Young for the Agricultural Show Society’s Zone Showgirl finals.
Sally launched the soon-to-be-registered not-for-profit organisation Grassroots Blueprint last year, with the aim of connecting and engaging people who work in agriculture while promoting her sector to the wider community.
She was one of 15 "Trailblazers" selected as part of ABC's Heywire 2019 to attend a summit in the nation's capital last week.
It was an incredible opportunity, she said on Friday, to share her ideas and fine-tune them.
In Canberra, she was encouraged to dream big, then helped to develop a series of achievable goals that will help achieve that dream.
She learned about grants funding and, finally, had the opportunity to pitch her idea to a gathering of MPs, Senators, and community leaders.
That sounds nerve-wracking, and it might have been.
"There were a lot of people in that room," Sally said.
But Sally's passion for rural mental health and wellbeing is such that she didn't feel the full impact of it until she sat down again.
"Mental health in regional Australia is a huge issue," Sally said in her presentation - broadcast through the Heywire social media page.
"We face financial stress, heavy workloads, droughts that bring failure and death; floods that take away thousands of cattle in the blink of an eye."
For agriculture to have a strong future, we need to look after the mental health of those working in the industry, she said.
Sally has many more ideas coming out of Heywire, such as bringing mental health first aid workshops here, introducing it to agricultural studies, and developing peer support networks.
In the current drought conditions, Sally and Grassroots Blueprint have also become a contact point for people in need, connecting them to practical assistance.
On Saturday night, Sally was also chosen to take her campaign to Sydney as one of the zone’s Showgirl representatives.
At Saturday night’s Showgirl judging, Sally told The Land that mental and physical health was a key focus for her as she had been through her own struggles and was now motivated to not just talk about these issues, but act on them.
She was chosen, along with Coonamble’s Emily Ryan and Dubbo’s Josie Anderson, at judging in Young.
Sally is currently working as Forbes Shire Council's drought coordinator and you can contact her at Council on 6850 2300. You can connect with Grassroots Blueprint on Facebook.
