Wingello and Balmoral Village residents have already proven their resilience, having survived the 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires. They are now the first communities to engage in a new round of disaster preparedness workshops for our Shire, through the Resilient Towns Initiative (RTI).
These residents are now being called upon to participate in next week's community-led workshops. They aim to help enhance the capacities, resources, and networks of the villages, to better cope with and recover from disasters in the future.
Wingecarribee Shire Council's Community Resilience Officer, David Belic, said these are follow-up workshops to the initial roll out of the initiative that occurred at the end of 2023:
"While the first workshops focused on conversations about how residents can make their communities safer, the upcoming 'Stage 2' workshops will be putting those conversations into actions via a preparedness plan for their villages," said David.
"The community will help develop responsible actions unique to their villages which is needed to implement a localised preparedness plan and support their community's effort to be self-reliant."
The Resilient Towns Initiative is a project that addresses local disaster preparedness and mitigation, in association with the University of NSW, NSW Reconstruction Authority, Australian Red Cross and Wingecarribee Shire Council.
The RTI workshops will discuss: –
- What is important to your community? What support does your community need?
- Developing a Preparedness Plan for Balmoral Village / Wingello using the Red Cross RediPlan
The RTI project is supported by Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Funding and the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery grant.
