Projects / Current Projects
Connecting St Arnaud for a stronger, more resilient future
KEY information
6-month project
completion December 2026
stakeholders
St Arnaud community
Northern Grampians Shire Council
A different approach to community resilience
Resilient Ready is working with Northern Grampians Shire Council and the St Arnaud community to pioneer a new place-based approach to community connection.
‘Connect St Arnaud’ brings data, local knowledge and community action together to understand what connects a community… and deliberately make those connections stronger.
Because connection is the foundation of a thriving community.
Through ‘Connect St Arnaud’, we’re combining our national social capital and social infrastructure measurement capability with local surveys, network mapping and community knowledge to create a clear picture of how St Arnaud connect today.
Every time we've worked with St Arnaud, we've come back to the same thing: connection. Connect St Arnaud is a different approach to building hyper local resilience.
Renae Hanvin
CEO + Founder Resilient Ready
How we’re thinking differently about the value of connections?
Three key elements underpin the ‘Connect St Arnaud’ approach:
- Understand Our Community
- Connect Our Community
- Strengthen Our Community
Understand our community
To understand where the strengths, gaps and opportunities are.
Connect our community
Rather than creating a new organisation or duplicating existing programs, ‘Connect St Arnaud’ aligns and supports existing groups under one shared vision. Every organisation continues to deliver its own priorities while contributing towards shared community outcomes.
Strengthen our community
Why connect the people of St Arnaud?
Communities with strong social connections consistently experience better outcomes.
Research demonstrates that communities with higher levels of social capital are more likely to experience:
- stronger local economies
- improved health and wellbeing
- increased volunteering
- higher community participation
- greater trust in local leadership
- stronger disaster resilience
- increased investment confidence
- greater ability to respond to change
‘Connected St Arnaud’ suggests that connection itself should become a strategic investment priority.
With thanks to our funders
This initiative is delivered by Resilient Ready with funding from the Northern Grampians Shire Council.
We value the Council’s willingness to think differently about resilience – recognising that stronger communities start with stronger connections.
Frequently Asked Questions
This project will include:
- Resilient Ready’s Sociabli mapping of social capital and social infrastructure at across the Northern Grampians Shire region
- Local ground-trothing to assess lived experience of the data
- Community catch-ups including a Summit to share data with the community
- Hiring locals from the community as an extension of the Resilient Ready team
- A community approach to build and strengthen connections before, during and after disasters
‘Connect St Arnaud’ takes a different approach to community resilience. It starts by understanding the connections that already exist—and where they need strengthening.
By bringing together data, local knowledge and community action, the project creates a pathway from evidence to action to measurable change.
Importantly, ‘Connect St Arnaud’ is helping demonstrate a practical approach that other communities can adapt to understand, strengthen and invest in their own connections—building resilience, wellbeing, prosperity and belonging.
This project is funded by the Northern Grampians Shire Council.
This project will delivered by Resilient Ready in collaboration with the local community—including local people we hire to deliver the engagement.
Because no-one knows a community better than the people who live and work there.
Interested in our social capital and social infrastructure work?
Check out our SC+SI solution page and get in touch with us:
From another region?
If you are a government department or resilience practitioner from another region, subscribe for updates about future projects.
