Pictured: Sandiellen Black, Melinda McInturff and Natasha Odgers at the conference.
Neighbourhood Centres were highlighted at the recent Australia and New Zealand Disaster & Emergency Management Conference on the Gold Coast (21-22 July). NCQ secured a place on the program to inform others in the disaster management sector about the value of Neighbourhood Centres and our sector’s experience in community-led approaches towards disaster resilience. Over 100 people attended the session, including a range of prominent people in the disaster sector, such as the Inspector General for Emergency Management, the National Emergency Management Agency and disaster leaders from America and New Zealand.
The Neighbourhood Centres’ session included a brief state-wide overview of Neighbourhood Centres and community-led approaches, presented by Natasha Odgers (NCQ), followed by Neighbourhood Centres’ stories of this work happening on the ground. Flood recovery stories highlighting community-led approaches included Resilient Kurilpa, presented by Melinda McInturff (Community Plus) and the Strengthening Neighbourly Connections door-knocking project, presented by Sandiellen Black (Benarrawa Community Development Association).
Sally Foreman (NCQ) was inundated by people seeking printed case studies of these two projects and copies of the Queensland Neighbourhood Centres Strategy for Disaster Resilience 2023-26. These case studies were jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements as part of the Neighbourhood Centres Community-led Flood/Disaster Recovery Project.
You can download copies of the case studies, here.
You can view the presentation slides, here.