Communities in New South Wales will receive $1.22 million in grants under the Community Resilience Innovation Program to boost their resilience to natural disasters.
The assistance is part of the jointly-funded Commonwealth-State National Partnership Agreement on Natural Disaster Resilience.
The funding will support 14 projects designed to improve disaster resilience in New South Wales and support communities to better withstand natural disasters and minimise impacts.
The New South Wales Minister for Emergency Services Troy Grant said the successful recipients will use the funding to increase collaboration between local community organisations and emergency service agencies to strengthen community preparedness and resilience in the face of future natural disasters.
“As was demonstrated with the Tathra fire earlier this year and Northern NSW floods in 2017 communities need to work together to prepare for and recover from these and other natural disasters,” Mr Grant said.
“By working at improving the capacity of our communities to withstand and recover from future natural disasters we can reduce the impact of these devastating events.”
Local councils were among the recipients. Lismore City Council will receive funding to develop a model to establish “Community Hubs” during emergencies to support community-led responses to disasters and Tweed Shire Council will receive funding to develop strategies to manage donated goods and spontaneous volunteers for Byron and Tweed Shires.
A full list of Community Resilience Innovation Program funded projects can be found here. Further information can be found at: https://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/