1. Community: Before During & After
Angela Sutherland
State Manager
VIC Emergency Services
As some of you will know, PRIORITY A in the EMV Strategic Action Plan is: “Build and empower community leadership and develop awareness, shared responsibility and self reliance to ultimately strengthen resilience.”
The objective of this priority is “increased capacity of local communities to be ready to withstand, and recover from an emergency, using business, social and community networks to raise awareness, share responsibility and build self-reliance to strengthen resilience.”
As a key player in the community sector, Neighbourhood Houses and Learning Centres play a vitally important role before, during and after emergencies.

2. The world is changing: climatically, socially, demographically and developmentally
People’s risk of experiencing the severe consequences of the impact of disasters is increasing.
Climate:
- Weather pattern changes
Social:
- People are more time poor
Demographic:
- Population growth and movement
Development:
- Reliance on vulnerable infrastructure
The fact is, we are seeing the number and frequency of disasters increasing
The world is changing in ways that increase people’s risk of experiencing the impacts of disasters
Some of these risk factors include the themes identified on the screen:
Climatically:
Atmospheric temperature rises and increasing sea levels are shifting the weather patterns. In Australia, we’re seeing hotter, drier conditions leading to longer, more intense heatwaves, droughts and higher fire danger. This also raises the risk of flooding from intense rainfall events.
Socially:
People are working longer hours and commuting further than ever before, giving people less time to focus on family, social and preparedness activities.
Demographically:
Our population is growing rapidly, forcing people to move into higher risk areas such as the urban fringe, and creating higher density in metropolitan areas
Population is more ethnically diverse, becoming older and with higher levels of disability
These create risk factors that can lead to vulnerability, e.g. reduced capacity to cope with disruption, fewer financial resources to dedicate to getting prepared, and limited community connection.
Developmentally:
We rely on physical infrastructure more than even before – including communication and technology systems, transportation networks, health care sector, power, water, sewerage and drainage systems etc.
When disabled or inhibited, these can cause large-scale disruption.

3. Some people are more resilient to impacts of disaster
Resilience is the ability of individuals, communities, organisations, or countries exposed to disasters and crises and underlying vulnerabilities to:
Anticipate
Reduce the impact of
Adapt to
Cope with
And recover from
The effects of adversity without compromising their long term prospects.
IFRC (2014) Framework for Community Resilience
Some people are more resilient to impacts of disaster
- At Red Cross, we use the Federation’s definition of resilience (ON SLIDE), which considers resilience to be more like a process or ability than an outcome.
- When we talk about emergencies, you hear the word ‘resilience’ used a lot!
- This concept helps explain why some people cope well with the impacts of disasters, and are able to ‘bounce back’ while others may not, and may face a longer recovery process.
Ability: refers to skills and competence based on different human, psychological, social, financial, physical, natural or political assets. This ties in to the broader idea that resilience is not just the immediate ability to respond to negative ‘events’ but rather a process of positive adaptation before, during and after adversity.
‘Without compromising long-term prospects’ distinguishes resilience from mere ‘survival’. It’s about adapting to a changed reality and capitalising on the opportunities offered by a new environment.
We take a resilience approach – frames our role as enabling individuals and communities to build on inherent capacities like social capital to build disaster resilient communities.

4. Individual and community resilience
A resilient community:
is knowledgeable and healthy
is socially cohesive
has economic opportunities
has well-maintained and accessible infrastructure and services
can manage its natural assets
is connected
This shows that a range of factors may impact on levels of resilience:
Some that people may have no control over, e.g. genetics, health, or age.
Some may be a product of circumstances, e.g. where people live, employment status
Some that people do have control over, e.g. the ability to protect themselves financially through insurance, or take actions to prepare psychologically.
Red Cross looks at resilience as an attribute that can be developed, facilitated and supported.
These resilience capacities are not something one organisation alone can foster, nor is it something that is isolated to emergency management – therefore partnerships with our business and community sector are vitally important to build emergency resilience before, during and after emergencies
e.g. preparedness sessions run at neighbourhood houses and learning centres, heatwave preparedness sessions

5. Australian Red Cross International Federation of Red Cross
International expertise:
Global Disaster Preparedness Centre
• International Federation of Red Cross
• Australian Red Cross International Programs
International Federation of Red Cross
National Emergency Services
VIC Emergency Services
Working with community
Partnerships with the community sector, business, government, agencies, research and education
Strategic Advice and Guidance Before, during and after emergencies
Community connections:
Emergency services, Migration support, Community services, Retail stores, Blood Service, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement, Red Cross Membership
In Emergency Management in Victoria – In addition to being a service provider at a local level, we are the Support Agency for Emergency Relief Coordination to Emergency Management Victoria at the State Level and Department of Health and Human Services at a regional level. In performing this role, we draw on our international, national and local expertise on working with community before, during and after emergencies, as well as working closely with our partners.

6. Working in partnership with community
Community sector
Education
SES
CFA
Red Cross
Business
Community Resilience
VCOSS
Government
Research bodies
As you will know, community organisations like Neighbourhood Houses and Learning Centres are many people’s primary connection to the broader community.
As a result, NHs often know who the socially vulnerable members of the community are and where they live, work or visit – which places them well to understand and identify their support needs in peace-time and before, during and after emergencies or disasters.
Our partnerships with the community sector, government at all levels, response agencies, business and research and education institutes are vitally important to the work we do. We see our role, not just as a service provider, but as an advocate for community and a connector of agencies and organisations, and a sharer of knowledge.
As part of the State Emergency Management Team, we are able to provide a voice at the state level to the community sector – whether before, during or after emergencies, and Neighbourhood Houses and Learning Centres are a key connector to the local level.
Neighbourhood Houses

7. Red Cross and Neighbourhood Houses
Before:
Preparedness sessions/ resilience building/ connections/ community need
During:
Spontaneous volunteering
Community connection/ information
Support the psychosocial welfare of individuals and communities
After:
- Recovery support

8. Want to know more? Angela Sutherland State Manager Emergency Services