We’re almost done building a Community Resilience Network
Almost 12 months of community collaboration on better preparing South West communities for predicted increases in drought events will culminate at the CWA Hall in Bridgetown on 25 October for a final workshop.
Across a series of six workshops held in partnership with five Community Resource Centres throughout the region in 2024, South West NRM has been driving development of a Community Resilience Network.
With increasing evidence of the social impacts of drought, a Community Resilience Network is being designed to:
- Increase community access to suitable support services, especially early intervention tools that help to build individual and community resilience;
- Share resources and learnings to develop partnerships across the region;
- Develop plans to further build community resilience.
South West NRM Sustainable Agriculture Manager and Project Coordinator Peter Clifton said guest speakers at each workshop had helped to ignite conversation among participants which provided greater clarity about the various social impacts different communities were experiencing and the gaps in services that could help.
“We’ve covered enormous ground in the topics explored from research insights on the social impacts of drought by the University of WA Centre for Social Impact to personal drought stories of suffering and survival to men’s health initiatives, community development tools and financial support services for farm businesses.,” Mr Clifton said.
Through the process, Mr Clifton said two points became clear:
- Each community experiences the social impacts of drought in its own unique way;
- There are a range of support services available but low community awareness of them.
Expert Facilitator Andrew Huffer will guide and coordinate discussion at the final event with the aim of collating findings for delivery of a framework that could be rolled out and actioned by different communities in the future when events like drought were testing resilience.
To find out more or register your interest in the Community Resilience Network final workshop, visit the South West NRM website or contact Peter Clifton on 0409 680 900 or [email protected]
This project is supported by FRRR, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. It is one of five ‘Surviving the Dry’ projects throughout the South West.
