Vantastic is an award winning community led outreach recovery model that was designed to put the community at its centre post the South West Fires.

Vantastic or “The Van” as it was commonly referred to was mobile and it came to the affected communities. The van operated on the side of the road , in four separate locations, over 40 weeks across two local government areas and two fire sites. The van had over 750 visits from the community and built resilience and social capital.

The van initially provided essential information to those impacted by the South West Fires and connected them with services and agencies to resolve immediate issues, but it quickly transitioned into a neutral, safe place that the fire affected community could visit each week to have respite, share information, have a chat over a cup of coffee or just to sit quietly. Most importantly, it drew the community out from their homes to participate in a weekly event that was relaxed and allowed people to talk to each other and to check in on each other.

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Why the van?

It was pretty simple really, we just asked the fire affected community how they wanted to be engaged with. Independently, and across all affected community’s the response we received was that they wanted the model to be informal, flexible , accessible, adaptable and it needed to meet their needs locally. They weren’t going to drive into town to get information, it had to come to them.

Combined with that information we knew that:

social strategies that encourage active participation in the community reduce stress
survivors with strong social networks experience faster recoveries
psychosocial support is best delivered as a community-based activity rather than within a medical health system

A van provided us with the solution of having something that was mobile, that could visit remote locations and be very informal.

Benefits of the Van

The van provided a constant in people’s lives, each week it would pull up in its usual spot and as soon as the marquee was up, people started to arrive. The van:

allowed peers to check in with each other in a non-intrusive manner
encouraged non-judgemental conversations
provided a safe place to share experiences
provided respite
connected people
was informal and non-threatening
engaged with a demographic that is notoriously difficult to engage with
improved the mental health of the participants
created a trusted environment where people felt comfortable to seek further mental health support
connected people with further support services
provided a means whereby we could monitor/evaluate the health and wellbeing of attendees and organise interventions when required
built resilience within an affected community
facilitated the opportunities for micro projects to occur

The Stats

Over 750 visits were made to the van with an average of 20.4 each week with over 400 hours of conversations occuring at the van.

Community events

As the communitys’ came together they organised their own events to support their recovery. Events included:

Inaugural Fire Dam Regatta where 41 community members attended for a fun day of kayaking and laughter
68 community members attended a Christmas dinner that was held on the side of the road in a marquee
32 community attended a tree planting day to revegitate around the fire dam where the van pulled up each week
52 people attended a pizza night
47 ladies participated in four ladies lunches