The NSW bushfires of summer 2019-2020 inflicted significant damage to an estimated 80% of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area, destroying wildlife and causing stress and trauma to people who live there, as well as hurting the local economy.
There are over 5,500 businesses across the Blue Mountains that have been impacted by the direct and indirect consequences of these bushfires.
We are excited to share our successful win of a NSW Bushfire Community Recovery and Resilience Fund (BCRRF) grant in collaboration with Business BM – the regional Blue Mountains business chamber.
From this month, we start helping businesses across the Blue Mountains build resilience, connections and well-being – so that they are better able to prepare and respond to the future disasters to come.
Community collaboration is the key
For the next two years, we are collaborating with BusinessBM the regional business chamber to create a central online and offline space for Blue Mountains’ business leaders, owners and operators to connect and collaborate with each other.
We will also be helping the Blue Mountains business community promote itself as a single voice when participating in local and regional conversations.
Specifically, we are:
- establishing a website with information on business resilience and well-being with tailored content;
- integrating self-help tools from credible partners into the website such as A Head for Business to facilitate greater access to mental health support;
- partnering with virtual volunteering and other mentoring platforms to fill gaps in business recovery and sustainability;
- engaging global experts to support the development of a disaster risk reduction and social capital building strategic roadmap to best position the Blue Mountains business community to build capabilities in risk preparedness, resilience, sustainability and well-being;
- building capabilities in a local project delivery personnel to become the trusted hub of business resilience in the region;
- planning and implementing a strategic engagement program to drive connections and collaborations between businesses and other community groups including Council, within and outside the region; and
- hosting an annual event to bring awareness and deliver solutions to identified business community gaps in preparedness, well-being and resilience.
If you are a business and business chamber located in the Blue Mountains Local Government Area please register your interest to be part of the program.
We do disasters differently
We know that people are the foundation of resilience. The more we build capabilities in people the more resilient our communities will become.
Our expertise means that we can help communities, businesses and governments from thinking and doing disasters differently.
To find out more about how we can help your community, contact us at [email protected]
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