When a significant emergency strikes an area, it is the people who make up that community who are the hardest hit. They are also the ones who have intricate knowledge of their community and can provide local insights as to what is needed to support recovery. It is important to support an approach to community recovery that gives communities greater opportunity to be involved in decisions and processes that contribute to reshaping and rebuilding their lives in ways that work for them.
Communities can be place-based, interest-based or impact-based, with a geographic location not always the most appropriate way to define a community affected by an emergency.
Emergency management in Victoria positions local governments as the lead agencies responsible for recovery coordination at the local level, recognising they are best placed to understand the unique context and provide for the needs of their communities. In events where complexity and scale require regional or state coordination, local governments still lead at the local level, delivering community-facing services and collaborating with partners.
Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (including Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, Land Councils and Traditional
Owner groups) are pivotal in leading and supporting successful recovery outcomes for local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Community Recovery Toolkit
ERV has developed a Community Recovery Toolkit that provides guidance and tools to support communities impacted by emergencies to establish and shape their community recovery processes. The toolkit provides practical advice on:
- The process for recovery and approaches that a community may adopt in preparing for recovery planning.
- Tools and templates to support each step of the community recovery process.
How we work to support community recovery
We enable local leadership by working with and through local government to support their community recovery approaches and by sharing information to improve recovery service delivery.
We coordinate recovery activities by collaborating as a partner with councils, government agencies and non-government organisations to respond to the recovery needs of communities in locally driven and delivered ways.
We are people-centred and trauma informed to be sensitive to the changing needs of people along their recovery journey. We proactively solve problems, advocate to remove barriers, and promote equity in service delivery.
We are agile to be responsive to the unique, complex, and dynamic needs of communities during recovery.
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