Episode #26: The role of community organisations in disasters

Bridget has worked for more than 10 years in emergency management in both the government and not-for-profit sectors. Bridget is currently a senior policy advisor at the Victorian Council of Social Services and works to highlight the role of the community sector in building resilience and to explore the role of the sector in emergency management.

Bridget also works to highlight the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged people before, during and after emergencies as well as their needs in the mitigation, transition and adaptation to climate change. Bridget is also the co-founder and President of the Australasian Women in Emergencies Network (AWEN).

Renae met Bridget via Amanda Lamont when they were setting up the Australasian Women in Emergencies Network which is going from strength to strength with almost 1600 members.

It was great to connect as Bridget is from the community sector side of the disaster sector and brings a wealth of information about those most vulnerable in our communities to the forefront of all discussions and initiatives. While our C2C focuses primarily on businesses, community organisations are essential to the community wellbeing ecosystem.

Renae Hanvin 

I’m talking with Bridget Tehan, the Senior Policy Advisor at the Victorian Council of Social Services, also called VCOSS. We’re talking about the role of community organisations in disasters. A little bit about Bridget, she has worked for more than 10 years in emergency management in both the government and the not-for-profit sectors. Bridget is currently a Senior Policy Advisor at the Victorian Council of Social Services and works to highlight the role of the community sector in building resilience and to explore the role of the sector in emergency management. Bridget also works to highlight the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged people before, during, and after emergencies as well as their needs in the mitigation, transition, and adaptation to climate change. Bridget is also the co-founder and president of the Australasian Women in Emergencies Network. Now I always like to start with where we met. I met Bridget through Amanda Lamont when they were setting up the Australasian Women in Emergencies Network, which is going from strength to strength with almost 1600 members, including me. It was great to connect as Bridget is from the community sector side of the disaster space. She brings a wealth of information about those who are most vulnerable in our communities to the forefront of all discussions and initiatives. While our focus is primarily on businesses, community organisations are essential to the community wellbeing ecosystem. Whilst community organisations are not profit-making businesses they’re still businesses to Bridget. Thanks so much for chatting with me today.

Bridget Tehan 

My absolute pleasure.

1. Now I’m really excited to talk about this as a topic because we haven’t talked a lot about the community space in our conversations. But can you explain to me VCOSS? What is it? And what are the important advocacy and policy changes that you and your awesome team are driving?

Bridget Tehan 

Absolutely. So VCOSS is the Victorian Council of Social Services. We are the peak body for the community and social service sector in Victoria. And I think one thing that’s really fascinating about the community sector and the social service sector is that it’s a bit like saying the private sector. We know the private sector can be anything from the IBM’s of the world right through to your local milk bar with every small, medium, and big sized businesses in between. I think the diversity of the community sector is really similar. We range from really big organisations like Australian Red Cross or the Salvation Army that many of your listeners will be familiar with, right through to very small individual and independent organisations like a local neighbourhood house, or a really small charity or community organisation.

Renae Hanvin 

I’m not going to touch on it too much, which is a bit unusual for me. But to me community organisations are businesses. So, whether you are a Red Cross or your neighbourhood house you don’t want to run necessarily at a profit but you certainly don’t want to run it at a loss. I love how you’ve just gone straight into comparing the community organisations to the private sector. To me they’re all businesses and we really need to focus on keeping all the businesses, including not for profits, resilient. Again, I’m not going to touch on that today. But I think that’s a really important point to make. So, any people within your networks and connections who want to build more resilience within their organisations, that’s absolutely a group that we do help and want to continue helping. Because I think, again, there’s so much value in helping community organisations stay in business because if they’re not in business then they’re not able to help those most vulnerable in our communities. Now, what I really want to talk to you about today is one of the many initiatives that VCOSS is driving. I really recommend people to sign up to your emails. I know I really welcome them. You know, the inbox is getting pretty full these days but I really welcome what comes through from VCOSS because I think there’s some amazing projects that you’re delivering. So Bridgette, can we focus on the bushfire recovery project in particular. We know that communities and individuals are better able to recover from natural and other disasters including bushfires if the local community is strong, connected, and well supported.

2. How do we achieve this in communities and particularly in those communities who are really struggling from the compound current disaster environment?

Bridget Tehan 

What a fantastic question Renae. I’ll talk to the work of the that we’re doing under the bushfire recovery project shortly. To answer your broader question I think it’s really, really important that communities build on their existing strengths. What I mean by that is the existing networks, the existing partnerships, using those existing businesses and community organisations that are already doing such fantastic work in communities on a day-to-day basis. They’re the organisations that know the community, that have the trust of the community, and I think are best placed to both represent communities and support communities as they recover. What those organisations need, of course, is that little bit of extra support to be able to deliver either additional services or changed services according to what the need might be. In recovery, some of the other things that we need to think about are really ensuring that the right services are available at the right time following an emergency or a disaster. We know that in the short-term financial need can be really strong. So it’s really important that people have access to independent financial advice or financial counselling, and also legal support and legal information and advice. If you think about making insurance claims or having to rebuild those sorts of services are really critical during that shorter term. Over the medium and longer term, we really need to think about what a community needs in terms of its wellbeing. So that might be counselling. Or it might be some mental health support services that are made available to community members. We also know that emergencies and disasters can really exacerbate some of the existing problems that might exist within a community or in fact cause new problems. Some of these we know through research are things like drug and alcohol abuse, family violence, and also PTSD and trauma. So it’s really important that we have targeted services available to support those communities so that they don’t fall down into those traps and find themselves in even more trouble than they may already be with having to grapple with the impact of an emergency.

Renae Hanvin 

The community organisations are so fundamental. We’ve mentioned and we’re talking about the bushfire recovery project but we can’t not mention COVID and storms and the many other disruptions happening to lives and livelihoods on top of each other particularly in the last two years. What I think is really key, as you mentioned, it’s the grassroots. People in those communities know those communities that people in those communities know they have so well they just potentially need help building capabilities or those extra services. I know our commitment is certainly not the fly in fly out. I have a different Seagull terminology that I won’t say here where we fly over and drop a few nuggets on the community and then fly out again. I know from our social enterprise purpose we always hire place-based people. In fact, I’m the only person in Melbourne in our team because I want to hire and build the skills and knowledge of people in those communities. Because that’s where it needs to start and that’s where it needs to end. I love that this project does that and that you’ve highlighted that because I think it’s vital and obviously is a big focus and commitment from our perspective as well. Now in this bushfire recovery project you mentioned six streams and I think they’re really interesting.

3. Could you share them and maybe one or two key findings from each one?

Bridget Tehan

Yeah, absolutely. We started off this project by going out and talking with community organisations who’d been affected by the 2019 to 2020 bushfires to really understand what the impact on community and social service organisation were to get an understanding of what their role was during the response and relief phase. And to really get a clear idea from them about what they felt was needed for their communities moving forward. So that resulted in a report which is available on our website. It’s called Perspectives from the Frontline. It articulates in the words of community organisations themselves; what happened as a result of this rapidly unfolding crisis, the fact that there were widely scattered resources across multiple events, inaccessible conditions, and the prolonged bushfire activity. It meant that that response was chaotic and sometimes seemed to be quite uncoordinated. It also meant that the initial recovery efforts took some time to settle in. As a result of what we learned from that report we then put forward a series of different projects to help support community organisations through the work that they were going to be doing in the months and years ahead. The second project under the bushfire recovery work has been capacity building for community organisations. What we’ve really tried to do there is trying to provide current advice, information, research, resources, and importantly lived experience. What I mean by that, is giving community organisations the opportunity to hear from peers and other organisations that had gone through similar events. We know that when you hear something from somebody that’s already been through a similar event that that’s often the best way to learn. We have been providing a series of disaster recovery bulletins, which are all available online, and also complimentary disaster recovery conversations. In these we’re talking with experts, people with lived experience, with researchers and so forth around particular topics. For example, one month we looked at the needs of older people in relation to disaster recovery. Another month we looked at the needs of people from multicultural communities with regards to disaster recovery. So, there is lots and lots of information and advice for community organisations. I must say that lots of other people have been signing up to those bulletins and attending those disaster recovery conversations including government researchers, individuals, and a whole range of different people. It’s certainly got a broad, broad reach.

Renae Hanvin

The work that’s been done, and again it’s obviously focused on a particular sector, but it’s got such a multi-stakeholder relevance to it. Which is what I really love that comes out of the work that you guys do as well. Because I know it’s policy and I know it’s advocacy, but it has real connections. It has real meaning that anyone, and I’m certainly not a specialist in the government or policy space, but I can get it, connect with it, and understand it. I think that the outcomes that can come from it are so positive. It’s really that stepping stone from experience and the lessons learned to here’s what’s needed next, here’s the evidence as to why it’s needed. So, let’s move and progress and make that change to make the community sector better.

Bridget Tehan

That’s absolutely right Renae. And one of the things that I love about working in emergency management and disaster resilience is the fact that we are all in this together. When an emergency or disaster hits everybody pulls together and focuses on what needs to be done. I love that level of collaboration and cooperation, of sharing and networking. So while, as you say, the information we’ve provided has been more or less targeted to community organisations, it’s absolutely relevant to anybody that has an interest in or experience in disasters or emergencies.

Renae Hanvin

I have to say just from my own experience I think that’s quite unique. Because there’s a lot of data out there about emergencies and resilience that are certainly written for the specialist industry. I think it’s quite rare, but very welcome, to find information that is written for the layman, perhaps like me. I mean obviously I’m an expert in the space, but I’m certainly not in the community space. I find it really interesting and really valuable. Now, we’ve mentioned that your focus at VCOSS is on inclusive stakeholders. Stakeholders are an absolute passion of mine particularly those most vulnerable.

4. So what are the main findings that have surprised you and the gaps that we need to quickly fill to support communities in their resilience journeys?

Bridget Tehan

So, I think, and you’ve touched on it with your previous comment just then Renae, is that there’s not a lot of information actually available for the lay person or a community member when it comes to disaster resilience and disaster recovery in particular. When a disaster hits there’s suddenly lots and lots of different organisations that turn up. You suddenly have the local council that might have a tent over here, you’ve got the Red Cross doing something. Suddenly there might be an agency you’ve never heard of like Bushfire Recovery Victoria and then there are some national agencies. It’s a very confusing and often overwhelming space. What is really missing is an opportunity for community members to know and understand who are all of these stakeholders? What are they doing? How do I fit in? Where’s my voice? More importantly; how can I lead this recovery journey because I know what I need and I know what my community needs? I’m the best place to be doing this with the support of those various organisations. So rather than those various organisations coming in over the top, like a seagull, as you said and saying “no, here’s what we think you need, and we will lead it, we’ve got the money” and so forth. It’s really about how we empower those communities and enable those communities. I think the gap is, as you say, in that information and advice for communities and community members.

Renae Hanvin

I couldn’t agree more. I’m a real supporter of shared responsibility, which is the notion that came out in the 2011 National Strategy for Disaster Resilience, and I’ve used that ever since. I think it’s fundamental. It’s also about shared understanding. We need to understand the different roles and responsibilities that multi stakeholders play. Then it goes to shared accountability. Because I think if we understand the role that we alongside others play together as part of a collective response then we can embrace and empower people in those stakeholder groups and educate them to be able to play the role in building resilience as well as in those recovery stages as well.

5. Now, what’s the most important thing for our listeners to know about community organisations when it comes to resilience and recovery? And I’m asking this question to the core audience.

Bridget Tehan

Fantastic question Renae. I think one of the great things about community organisations is that resilience is their core business. Community organisations have been building resilience and in fact have been using the word resilience since the 1970s. What they do with their clients, with their consumers, and with their communities more broadly is take that strengths-based approach. They look at people’s lives, look at people’s situations and say “what do you have to work with that can help you get over this hurdle, help you manage this stress, help you cope with this shock or this change, and move forward in your life”. Whether they do that with mental health, whether they do it with people living with a disability, whether they do it with people who may be living in poverty, or living on low incomes, and they’re really struggling, they take a very strength-based approach. The other fantastic thing about community organisations is that they’re deeply embedded into their communities. They know their community members well, they know what their strengths are, and they know what some of those vulnerabilities might be. So, if I was a disaster recovery agency, for example, one of the first things I would do would be to go and talk to those community organisations in that local area to get a really deep understanding of what that community looks like, where some of the funding could be directed, where some of those strengths could be leveraged and used to help support that overall community in its recovery.

Renae Hanvin

I love that because we’ve mentioned the favourite seagull a few times. It’s not just in Australia but overseas, we’ve seen this with Fijian cyclones and tornadoes etcetera. Something happens and then everyone whose an expert comes in and starts to dictate. They have the funding and they sort of pave the way, but we really need to respect, recognise, and embrace the knowledge and the role in communities that community organisations play. Resilience is certainly not a buzzword in the space, because my goodness me, it’s a buzzword in every other sector. I couldn’t get anyone to listen to resilience about three and a half years ago and now I can’t see anything without it. The best one I found was an organisation that approached me and they were having a forum and were looking at resilience for three weeks. I thought, wow, that just summarises the big threat that we have. Because these sorts of organisations too are those ones that are coming in, they are where the funding is. They go into the communities as the overnight experts and can really damage community organisations and overrun community needs as well. I’ve now got a newfound appreciation for community organisations having used them. As you say the term resilience has been around since the 1970s and it’s just embedded into the whole ethos of their being.

Bridget Tehan

What a fantastic question. I’ll go back to your earlier comments about shared responsibility Renae and one of the additional comments I would add to that would be sharing power. One of the things about the emergency management sector, and about government which plays such an important role in disaster recovery, is that they need to open the doors and actually allow the community to come in and be a genuinely equal partner in that disaster recovery and disaster resilience space. That’s not a natural fit for the government. The government tends to have fairly closed doors and tends to be fairly private. But I think that, as I said earlier, when it comes to disasters when it comes to resilience building we are all in this together. We really need to create a new framework that actually opens the doors and lets everybody come in, regardless of whether you’re a community organisation, a business owner, a community member, the Premier of Victoria, or whoever you may be. But for everybody to have an equal seat at the table, that would be my first thing. I think my second thing in terms of thinking about disasters and how they could be done differently is really starting to build capacity very early on in communities. To have communities thinking about and be prepared for shocks and stresses. Because we know that they’re coming as a result of climate change. We’ve had a horrendous experience here in Victoria over the past couple of years with the bushfires, pandemic, the floods, an earthquake, storms and so forth. We’ve really been battered and sadly these sorts of things are going to continue. I think it’s really important that the earlier that we as communities all think about this together the better off we’ll be when they do hit.

Renae Hanvin

I love both of those. The power one is absolutely spot on. And then building capacity. I was joking a little bit before, but I spent a good three years advocating for building greater preparedness in business communities because that’s our key focus. And I got the “well it’s not me” and “it’s not going to happen to us” and “you’re dreaming about this future era and the one in a hundred-year flood”. But the reality is that compound disruptions and disasters of all types are really just the new norm. We’re living differently and the world is changing around us. I personally think that whilst resumes is the buzzword; if we don’t start preparing and have that inclusive focus to enable every Australian to get prepared in their lives, their livelihoods, and in the communities then we’re going to be in big, big, big trouble. I just hope that the new federal agency and some of the changes, like the changes happening in the Victorian Government as well, I really hope that it’s not a token reactive approach. I hope it doesn’t just sit at the same 97% recovery. And I’m not saying recovery is not needed but I think we really need to cement a refocus towards resilience and that includes preparedness. We’ll all be better off for it assuming we can all do it in the same way. But that’s a whole other podcast about state politics relating to disasters but we’ll need a glass of wine if we go down that road. A massive thank you to Bridget Tian who is the Senior Policy Advisor at the Victorian Council of Social Services, also called VCOSS, for talking to me about the role of community organisations in disasters. I can’t wait to we can catch up face to face again, which is not too far off. Thanks so much, Bridget.

Bridget Tehan 

Thank you so much for the opportunity Renae.