Over the past decade, Inner Sydney Voice has transferred its community development expertise to support communities prepare for disasters and build their resilience to manage “whatever comes their way”.

The Get Ready For Flood Social Housing Sector Project identified the need for the social housing sector in the Hawkesbury local government area to strengthen its risk awareness and disaster preparedness. This Hawkesbury Community Continuity Project  worked with community and their providers to design a community continuity process and plan.

The Project collaborated with Link Wentworth, the largest community housing provider in the region. Tenants and staff (primarily from the Windsor and Richmond areas) came together to talk about natural hazard risks, their lived experience, and how to better prepare and mitigate the impact of future events. A community driven and owned continuity plan was developed.

Through the process ISV developed a Ready Residents Handbook informed by the key questions that Link Wentworth tenants and staff raised during listening workshops and other engagement activities. The Handbook is intended to be shared across diverse formats, channels, platforms, and forums to help overcome identified barriers to tenants’ access to preparedness information.

The Project also led community engagement activities such as Streets Connect, recognising the importance of social connections and equitable access to community support organizations and emergency service providers.

ISV also partnered with the University of Sydney to explore how the Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) approach developed by the Centre for Disability Research and Policy can inform and support community-centred emergency preparedness and community continuity planning. The University of Sydney developed tip sheets and case studies to document the collaboration.

This Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund project is jointly funded by the Australian and NSW governments under Disaster Recovery Fuding Arrangements