Recovery is a long, slow, and most often a painful and emotional journey for all involved. It’s a journey that you hadn’t planned nor wanted, one minute you are going about your regular routine and then all of a sudden your world is turned upside down and you’re not actually sure which way is up anymore. Somehow, amongst the turmoil and distress, you tell yourself that you have to keep going and you pull yourself together, you repeatedly tell yourself you will be right, and there are a lot more people that have been affected so much more than you have, there are people that need you now, more than ever before.
At this point, you put on your bravest face and your fastest running shoes and you set off on your recovery journey. You quickly find that everyone surrounding you is now a disaster recovery expert and everyone has an opinion on how you should do your job. All of a sudden, unknown people appear in your office, people are emailing you, calling you, many of them thrusting their ideas and opinions upon you and telling you what will best suit your community, whilst their advice may be well intended, most you could probably do without.
Government agencies start demanding recovery plans and timelines, you feel compelled to provide these “important” documents quickly and the demands keep on coming. You try to manage your team and set priorities, but the goal posts keep being moved. Your days quickly become consumed with meetings and teleconferences, your mobile phone now feels like it has become an additional part of your anatomy; it is almost permanently attached to your ear.
You have now entered a new world, the world of disaster recovery. The spotlight is on you and it is so bright you are unsure of what direction you are headed, advice is coming from every direction and many are encouraging you to hurry up and get things moving. Politicians want to see results, they quickly steer you down the road of rebuilding infrastructure, and they make it very clear it is important that “we” rebuild quickly, people need to move on and for that to happen we need infrastructure built. It is here where we can quickly become submerged in the political game playing and point scoring, but what we have to remember is that it’s more than just buildings; it’s more than just fencing; it’s more than just roads; it’s more than clearing away trees and destruction, and whilst all those things are important we must not forget it’s about people.
One of the many things that I learnt as a recovery practitioner in local government is, that the success of recovery comes from the community, you need to allow them to lead their own recovery. It’s about the community deciding what they need and when they need it, it’s not about us and other agencies setting the priorities and the time lines. It’s our role to listen, and facilitate Community Led Recovery. It’s important that we don’t get caught in the clichés of building back better and building back quickly, what’s important is that we build community.
We need to build the things that you can’t see like; trust and community connection, its social capital that will be the glue that holds everything together, and not the bricks and mortar. There isn’t much point of having big fancy buildings if you haven’t got anyone to put in them.
Most importantly don’t forget to look after yourself and remember it’s a marathon not a sprint, and there will be a few steep climbs along the way, so it might be best to swap your fastest running shoes for some hiking boots.
Mat Deans
The Six C's 