Drought Preparedness Community Planning Workshop at Holbrook
Regional coordination, local delivery, with the FRRR Community Impact Program
Community Participation - LEP_23-020_RLC02
The issue
On Friday 1st December 2023 Holbrook Landcare Network (HLN) hosted a "Preparing Communities to Face Adversity workshop". This workshop, facilitated by Paul Ryan from the Australian Resilience Centre, brought together representatives of Holbrook community groups and organisations to identify the gaps and opportunities for increasing community resilience to gradual and sudden disruptions.
The solution
During the workshop, participants highlighted specific areas and entities requiring resilience improvement in the Holbrook community. There was also discussion on how to ensure the most vulnerable in the community such as children, the elderly, socioeconomically disadvantaged, transient families and individuals, domestic violence victims, and non-engagers in community activities were included. The group also highlighted the importance of increasing resilience of community-led organisations particularly those reliant on volunteers, such as local clubs and volunteer fire services.
The group identified a spectrum of challenges encompassing both gradual and sudden disruptions. There is an identified need for heightened resilience in the face of severe weather events, flood, fire, and drought. They also highlighted the importance of adapting to changing economic circumstances, the rising cost of living, international and domestic conflict, digital decline, dwindling volunteer number and the overarching impact of ongoing change.
A total of 24 groups were represented during the workshop.
The impact
The social outcomes related to drought preparedness include a change in awareness of and attitudes to drought preparedness or adverse event at the community level. The workshop matched the Future Drought Fund Program Priority that Local communities adapt to and prepare for the impacts of drought.
The practical outcome from the activity was a list of actions so that when the next adverse event hits, everyone knows what the vulnerabilities are within the community, their roles within community, how groups can work together and with what resources to support community, and build stronger, better working relationships with Greater Hume Council.
The project is supported by FRRR, through funding from the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund.
Key facts
- 24 organisations represented
- A component of the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative – Community Impact Program (CIP) in region NSW 2 Murray project.
- Murray Landcare Collective