Knowledge base workshops in the LGAs: A report outlining the process and outcomes of the disability inclusive emergency preparedness workshops

This report outlines the processes and outcomes of the first round of disability inclusive emergency preparedness workshops conducted as part of the Disability Inclusive Disaster Preparedness in New South Wales (NSW): Enabling Local Community Resilience through Collaboration project funded under the Community Resilience Innovation Program, Office of Emergency Management NSW Department of Justice (Australia). This program is part of the NSW and Commonwealth governments’ National Partnership Agreement – Natural Disaster Resilience Program.

This report summarises the findings from the project’s ‘Local Knowledge Base Workshops’, which were undertaken in April and May 2016 in the project’s study locations: Hawkesbury; Taree and Sutherland. 

Learnings from each of the three study locations contributed to four principles for guiding future directions for local action:

1. It is important to know your community;
2. It is necessary to intentionally build individual and community networks of support;
3. Community Service Organisations (CSOs), and Disability Support Organisations (DSOs), have in-depth knowledge about people with disability in their community and they have established networks of trust and support;
4. Opportunities exist to nurture collaboration between CSOs/DSOs and Emergency Management Agencies and collaborative effort should be fostered as a core strategy for local action.