Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 0 Community Resilience: what is it and why do we need it? APCO Australasia Conference 17 March 2010 Mark Duckworth Executive Director, Governance and Community Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 1 In one way we all know what community resilience is…. the ability to cope with adversity “All members of the Australian Medical Assistance Team felt it a great honour and privilege to assist the Samoan people and pay tribute to their stoicism and resilience. Also to the professionalism of the local Samoan medical colleagues who gave selflessly to their community and patients despite many suffering personnel loss.” EMUpdate, November 2009

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3 While it seems obvious we need to define some concepts Which community are we talking about? What do we mean by resilience? What adverse events are we bouncing back from?

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 4 What do we mean by Community? All communities are collections of individuals who chose to act towards each other in certain ways. The main ways this happens are through  Communities of place: geographic location  Communities of interest: such as a common belief system. These are often two parts of the same community: people who have common values, who live in the same area.

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 5 What do we mean by resilience?  Individual resilience – psychological impact  Community resilience  Business/Organisational resilience

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 6 Resilience theory Originally a scientific term: the property of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically and then, upon unloading, to have this energy recovered. Used by psychologists: from the 1970s to mean the ability of individuals (with a focus on children) to recover from trauma, crisis or cope with adversity. Focus on individuals: What are the risks and protective factors that help define resilience in individuals? Importance of social support systems: found or absent in:  Neighbourhood  Family and kinship networks  Intergenerational supports  Mutual self-help groups

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 7 Concept of community resilience During the 1990s a shift in focus from:  factors in a community that promote individual resilience; to  seeing the community as a unit in itself and how the community may show resilience in the face of community challenges Initially used in social work and public health Adopted for use in emergency management: an emergency is an example of an adverse event.

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 8 Key concepts in Resilience  Good functioning while under stress  Successful adaptation  Self-reliance  Social support,  Social cohesion  Social capacity Community Resilience definition by US social worker Gary Bowen: “The ability of a community facing..adversity…to establish, maintain or regain an “expected” or “satisfactory” range of functioning that is equal to or better than prestressor functioning.”

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 9 Is RESILIENCE something that just exists; or can we actually help create it? Why are governments around the world interested in this idea?

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 10 The idea behind Resilience is not new. In Australia the concept of “resilience” is already built into PPRR: PREVENTIONRESPONSERECOVERY PREPAREDNESS

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 11 Development of Victorian approach Over last 10 years a move from focus on Response to give greater emphasis to Prevention and Recovery. Preparing for all three helps builds resilience.

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 12 ROLE OF GOVERNMENT  The tolerance of risk by communities was going down  Community expectations of government are increasing GOVERNMENT

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 13 Use in Emergency Management setting The UK:  Better prepared to respond;  More able to absorb damage and keep going; and  Quicker to recover. Sweden’s Lund University:  Ability to withstand strain;  Ability to limit consequences of strain; and  Ability to recover after strain. The US:  The capacity to recover quickly from adversity and to adapt to the changed environment. The Netherlands “resilience” is very closely tied to particular risks. So the Dutch project in this area focuses on:  Raising risk awareness;  Promoting self reliance; and  Increasing the possibilities of civil participation.

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 14 Partners in Community Resilience Community Secondary Primary Statutory Using existing networks and groups to mainstream community resilience and increase preparedness (Community Groups) (NGOs) (Government)

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 15 UK – linking Resilience to risk  Civil Contingencies Act 2004  Local and Regional Resilience Forums across England and Wales  Horizon scanning and risk assessment are built into the strategy. The National Risk Register is part of this. The UK Resilience Programme involves: (1) Identifying Risk; (2) Assessing Risk; (3) Building Resilience; and (4) Evaluating Resilience. Key Principles  Acting in support of the “blue light” services.  Must go with the grain of existing citizen engagement initiatives.  Done by the people (with support from practitioners) not to people.  Uses local knowledge and networks.

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Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 17  Council of Australian Governments 7 December 2009 National Disaster Resilience Statement A disaster resilient community is one that works together to understand and management the risks that it confronts Disaster resilience is the collective responsibility of all sectors of society…government, business, the non- government sector and individuals.

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 18 Resilience in infrastructure, communities and emergency services Critical infrastructure resilience promoted through: Business continuity planning Exercising Information-sharing Community resilience promoted through: Campaigns to develop individual preparedness Support for volunteers Social cohesion policy Capacity building Resilience in emergency services promoted through exercising, training and capability enhancements

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 19 Social cohesion  Resilience is based on trust in institutions and others in the community  Different types of emergencies challenge resilience in different ways: Most emergencies are geographically confined But terrorism may have a wider destabilising effect on communities, beyond geographical boundaries  Social cohesion underpins resilient community response  Australia has done much work in developing indicators of community strength and analysing psycho-social impact of disasters.

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 20 Research Considerable research being done into this topic in Australia, eg:  University of Western Sydney: Science of Mental Health and Adversity Research Unit  Monash University: Global Terrorism Research Centre,  Scanlon Foundation: Mapping Social Cohesion  Centre of Excellence in Police and Security (CEPS), University of Queensland  Flinders University Research Centre for Disaster Resilience and Health  Department of Human Services “After the bushfires. Victoria's psychosocial recovery framework” 2009

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 21 Resilience is a useful way of approaching community response to and recovery from emergencies. Issues are:  Need to create better understanding of the roles of government, business, communities and individuals  Further Research on the predictors of resilience  How to measure effectiveness: metrics and indicators.  How to operationalise “Resilience”, including building self-reliance.  Links between resilience, vulnerability and risk assessment.  Over use of the concept of “resilience.”

Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria 22 QUESTIONS?