The impacts of disasters on the community are not necessarily determined by the scale of a disaster but are significantly influenced by the preparedness of the community. Community resilience is the capacity of groups to withstand, recover from, and respond positively to crisis or adversity. Community resilience is often described as having three properties: resistance, recovery and creativity.
- Resistance – the degree of disruption that can be accommodated without the community undergoing long term change. A highly resilient community can withstand considerable disruption before undergoing long-term change.
- Recovery – the community’s ability to pull through or bounce back to its pre-disaster state. A highly resilient community returns to its pre-disaster state, or moves beyond that, quicker than a less resilient community.
- Creativity – the community’s ability to build on learnings of a crisis or disaster, to gain an improved level of functioning and increased levels of resilience. A highly resilient community will adapt to its new circumstances and learn from the disaster experience.
Resilience is a dynamic quality within a community. It can be developed and strengthened over time. A community can take action to enhance the capacity of its people, organisations, resources and processes to respond to and influence the course of change.
FaHCSIA supports a whole-of-government, whole-of-community approach to building more resilient communities, which includes learning from disasters so that communities can adapt to change, reduce their exposures to hazards and move forward after disasters.
FaHCSIA’s role is to help Australians prepare for, cope with, and recover from the adverse social and community impacts of disasters through the interrelated domains of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery with the end goal of achieving resilience.
Preparedness activities help to build community resilience to disasters. Preparation not only helps in preventing disasters but can also lessen the impact of disasters when they do occur. Strategies, tools and training are provided to assist in preparation for disasters. For example, in preparation for an influenza pandemic, FaHCSIA has worked closely with community service organisations to improve business continuity planning.
Resilience is also promoted through programs that encourage, create and develop resources and connections that can be drawn on in times of crisis. Programs that encourage community connection, financial independence, social inclusion, volunteer assistance and recognition of work done by community members such as Local Answers, the Volunteer Grants Program and the Financial Management Program, build resilience for Australian individuals, families and communities.
Business continuity and pandemic planning
Business continuity planning contributes to community resilience as a preparedness measure designed to build capacity and ensure the continuation of services in times of crisis. A business continuity plan should address the specific circumstances and needs of an organisation and practical strategies to follow in a crisis. A business continuity plan benefits community organisations by providing an opportunity to not only plan for, respond to, and recover from specific events, but to improve overall business operations and processes.
A business continuity kit for non-government organisations entitled Being Prepared – Pandemic Planning Tools for Non-Government Organisations may assist community organisations to prepare pandemic and business continuity plans. These plans will help community organisations mitigate the adverse community and social impacts of a potential human influenza pandemic or other crises/disasters. This kit is available online and can also be ordered by emailing (Piinfo@fahcisa.gov.au).