Case Studies / Business Community Advisory Service

Business Community Advisory Service to build better business in St Arnaud

KEY information
Business Community Advisory Service
completed 2024

stakeholders
NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE COUNCIL
ST ARNAUD BUSINESSES

Co-designing a roadmap towards better business for St Arnaud

Opportunity

Resilient Ready was engaged by the Northern Grampians Shire Council to collaborate with the local St Arnaud business community to build connections and resilience following recent flood events.

They key focus for this project was to support local business owners and operators to identify common goals and opportunities to increase knowledge and capabilities in:

business sustainability
disaster preparedness
social capital

The outcome was to develop a collective pathway towards success.

Our approach

From September 2023 to March 2024, Resilient Ready delivered our Business Community Advisory Service to work closely with local businesses, North Grampians Shire Council and other key stakeholders to co-design a two-year strategic action plan for St Arnaud businesses.

Steps we took included:

Discovery research interviews were undertaken with non-business stakeholders including Council, Community Groups, Emergency Services Organisations, Grampians Tourism and NBN.
A local business community launch event was hosted at a local small business venue to promote the project phases and outcomes.
1:1 discussions were conducted with all Napier Street business people to understand their priority areas of concern and risk, as well as strengths and opportunities for the future.
A second workshop event was hosted in the community to discuss early findings and propose some future directions for a two-year Action Plan
A project Findings Report and two-year Roadmap action plan was created to reflect all inputs from the project deliverables
A St Arnaud Business Community Roadmap launch held at a local cafe invited business community visitors from the neighbouring town to share their experience and support the next steps in locally-owned implementation.

Project Funding

The Building Better Business in St Arnaud Project is generously funded by the Victorian Government and Commonwealth Government under the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding arrangements (DFRA) through Emergency Recovery Victoria’s Community Recovery Hub Program. This funding is in response to the October 2022 Floods which impacted communities in the Northern Grampians Shire Council.

Local businesses know best, which is why our advisory role is to foster local discussions and guide an effective and inclusive outcome for all.

Bekah Baynard-Smith
Program Coordinator

A two-year pathway to benefit the whole St Arnaud community

Outcomes

Businesses in St Arnaud’s main street and surrounds now have a comprehensive two-year Roadmap including a self-identified action plan that fosters:

Stronger connections via regular business community catch–ups that drive outputs to support local businesses to thrive
Inclusive participation expanding the initial focus from Napier Street traders to the entire St Arnaud business community
A role for all local business people from champions to participants and supporters
Upskilling in business capabilities such as increasing customers to e-commerce and cybersecurity
Working together to prepare for, respond to and recover from future floods and fires.

Outcomes from this process will not only benefit the St Arnaud businesses, but the broader community and visitors to the region.

In-person and online workshops and events

40+

Businesses and stakeholders interviewed

Years of monthly activities prioritised empowering local businesses to thrive