Forgive me for being a day or two late in sending this month’s newsletter; to say it’s been a little hectic is probably an understatement!
Given the bushfires, hailstorms, floods, cyclones and a potential pandemic driving discussions, we’ve been actively working on a number of initiatives with SMEs, corporates, industry associations and Governments across multi locations.
So, here’s a quick summary:
- We launched our Help a Small Biz initiative and was so grateful to receive some funding from NAB, which means Mel is able to connect in person with many of the communities who we have built connections with over the past 18 months and check-in with their small businesses.Dare I say it our media alert was bumped from coverage due to a coronavirus announcement, but stay tuned as we’ve some great stories about HASB to share.
- We were part of the working group to host a Private-Public Partnerships 2019/2020 Bushfire Roundtable in Melbourne and Sydney inviting corporate, philanthropic and government representatives to connect and discuss how collaboration can support community recovery.It was a positive first step in better understanding what roles each of the stakeholder groups play, and how we can collectively work to fill recovery gaps.
- Mel and I visited East Gippsland meeting many locals from fire-impacted communities who have been directly and indirectly impacted by the summer bushfires. While there are lots of great stories of resilience and community collaborations arising, there are still gaps in our recovery system with key stakeholders needing help.As a result, we have expanded our 50 Communities Project concept and will be reaching out to corporates soon about our Help a Local Community initiative.
- It was great to connect with the National Bushfire Recovery Agency this month including their interstate representatives. The disaster landscape in Australia is a little complex given our Federal, State and Local model but I’ve been impressed with how this agency is activating initiatives at the Federal level.
- I’m participating on the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) Community Engagement Handbook advisory group and participated in a robust teleconference with multi-stakeholders.Dr Margaret Moreton has the task of drafting this document, which is exciting from C2C’s perspective given her extensive experience in the community resilience and engagement space. You’ll be happy to know there’s a bigger section for businesses being considered and I was not backwards in coming forwards regarding questioning who the document is aimed at…?
- We met with a number of Council CEO’s regarding place-based investments in community resilience which had very positive outcomes, and we’re looking forward to sharing some of our grass roots initiatives in the coming weeks.
Now before I sign off, it would be remiss of me not to ask… have you created and communicated your plan for if the coronavirus impacts Australia?
I can assure you businesses are not immune to pandemics! Please reach out if you’re interested in our Resilient Ready™ approach to ‘doing disasters differently’.
That’s all from me now, happy reading!
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