Community Sector Resilience Program
PAG Inception Workshop Pre-Package
Thursday 12th November 10am - 3pm
Arup Offices, Melbourne
Welcome Project Advisory Group (PAG) Member !
Title Text
You might be thinking...'why me?'
Well this project seeks to build the resilience of the community sector - the best way to do that is to engage with those who know the sector best...thats you!
Before we go any further, let us give you some background information on the project...
This project was born out of the desire from DHHS to support their funded agencies in the face of disasters and climate change - to make them more resilient
The fact is...community service organisations support the most vulnerable in our society who are most affected by disasters.
But as you know, community service organisations themselves are vulnerable to disasters.
ACOSS research indicated that 25% of CSOs cannot operate again after a disaster, and 50% of organisations are out of operations for up to a week after a disaster.
If this wasn't reason enough...the demand for these vital services is likely to increase with social vulnerability characteristics increasing due to increasing disasters.
The Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research outlined that the best way to increase the capacity of CSOs to plan for changes in the climate is to facilitate adaptation or resilience planning.
They recommended the facilitators to 'live the following principles'...
So we are trying to live these principles in the Community Sector Resilience Program.
And that is why we are speaking to you....
You know the sector, and we have built the program flexibly to consider your insights.
The overarching objectives of the project are:
To activate resilience leadership and coordinated effort in the community sector
Partnering with people who effect change in the sector, peak groups and across networks;
Help to empower organisations understand disaster risks; and
Equip organisations with facilitated resilience planning.
Community Sector Organisations (CSOs) include all agencies funded by DHHS to deliver services, including:
local government
community housing providers
family and youth support
indigenous support orgs
elderly support
So what do we mean by resilience?
Resilience is the ability to become strong, healthy and successful again after a shock or disturbance. Resilience can include the ability to move or change to be able to cope or do things better.
Resilience to what?
Disasters and extreme events are becoming more prevalent. These include heatwave, bushfire, flood, storm events and increasing extreme in temperates.
So what does the project entail?
So that was a lot to take in!
and just a few more things we would like you to think about for the inception workshop...
We would like your thoughts (bring these on Thursday):
who learns from who in the sector?
where do CSOs go for information on disasters and extreme events?
questions on the methodology
key organisations for us to speak to first
what are your thoughts on the PAG terms of reference
who else should be included?
Thank you for your time and looking forward to getting to know you more!