As fire grounds around Australia transition to recovery, Recovery Managers it is your time to lead. Being a Recovery Manager is one of the hardest but most rewarding jobs you will ever do. But what does recovery look like in 2020? And can there truly be community led recovery?
Whilst we learnt a lot from Black Saturday in Victoria, recovery has moved forward in leaps and bounds in those 11 years. What was successful then such as setting up associations and committees could again be successful for some communities but why stop there, let’s reach for the stars to help our communities.
Lets learn from modern leaders in post disaster recovery like Daniel Aldrich – let’s build social capital. Because as Daniel’s studies have found “Survivors with strong social networks experience faster recoveries”.
Mat Deans and I used Daniels approach post the Victorian South West Fires in 2018. This approach, coupled with the fact that:
- social strategies that encourage active participation in the community reduces stress; and
- psychological support is best delivered as a community based activity rather than within a health system
This led us to design a community led recovery strategy that met the communities needs. Our award winning strategy “Vantastic” engaged with four separate farming communities on a weekly basis and grew from just providing information to being a place that provided a constant in people’s lives. The van provided:
- An opportunity for peers to check in on each other
- Non judgmental conversations
- A safe place to share their experiences
- A location that was easily accessible for people
- Respite and so much more
So yes community led recovery is possible. We’ve done it and it is the most rewarding thing you will ever do.
So what does recovery look like in 2020? – it looks full of opportunities.
The Six C's 