Keep Cool in Yarra – heatwave safety campaign

Project Summary

The aim was to reduce heatwave vulnerability among culturally and linguistically diverse groups living in social and public housing. The campaign brought 25 agencies together to provide information and resources via face-to-face, social media, radio and other creative, innovative ways.

Background and Situation Context

Yarra City Council developed and led a campaign to support the City’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities living in social and public housing, to build their resilience and reduce their vulnerability to the undesirable consequences of heatwave. The Council partnered with 25 different agencies and community groups to deliver the campaign over 2015-16.

Activities

Council recognised early that community resilience cannot be built through a ‘one size fits all’ approach. This is because communities are not static, homogenous groups. Council therefore committed to building resilience in the City of Yarra, by engaging with one identified vulnerable community group at a time, on the topic of one single hazard at a time. The resilience-building initiative involved: - engaging directly with vulnerable community members through activities frequented by the targeted vulnerable groups (e.g. English language classes, Migrant Centres, Cultural Community festivals, Housing estates, etc.); - using service providers trusted by CALD groups to deliver heatwave risk information and resilience-building products (e.g. Pharmacists, Red Cross, Yarra Community Housing, VicDeaf, Victorian Aboriginal Health Service etc.); - developing and distributing appropriate physical resources to assist resilience-building; - distributing CALD-tailored heat safety information in creative, accessible formats; - modifying Council’s Home and Community Care client assessments to also consider client heatwave vulnerability; - creatively exploiting traditional and social media channels used by CALD community members (e.g. ethnic radio, branding heat safety information on community buses in languages other than English).

Results

The campaign’s success was assessed through quantitative and qualitative methods. Campaign products developed had an estimated reach of 40,000 people. Media advertisements had an estimated reach of 450,000 people. Feedback/surveys from the target audience showed that the Campaign

• Increased heatwave risk awareness among Yarra’s CALD residents of Public and Social Housing;
• Encouraged and facilitated heatwave safety behaviour;
• Provided useful resources for vulnerability reduction to occur;
• Forged new connections between Council and vulnerable groups
• Strengthened relationships between government agencies and local social service providers.

Resilient Australia Award 2016 - Victorian Winner. The campaign: - Increased risk awareness among Yarra’s CALD Public and Social Housing residents; promoted heat safety behaviour within CALD groups; and, provided appropriate information and resources to vulnerable persons.

Reflection

The campaign is special because it is simple, relatively cheap and can have enormous reach. The campaign can be used and modified by local governments nationally, to target any identified vulnerable group and support resilience-building for any specific emergency risk.

The campaign is original in its creative approach: using face-painting, music, visual images on buses, language classes and lollies etc. to engage with CALD groups. The project is innovative because the deaf community was included as a linguistically diverse group within the campaign, rather than being identified a group with disability. In terms of heatwaves, deaf people are vulnerable because of their inability to access information in their language, not because they cannot hear. This has helped to change perceptions around deaf people in our community and it aligns with how VicDeaf sees the deaf community too.

The project was innovative because the thermometer-magnets developed as part of the campaign allowed Council to embed heat safety information directly into homes in a way that would raise risk awareness and assist resilience-building in a practical and meaningful way. People access their fridge multiple times per day, so having a technical gauge for how hot it is in the home raises awareness constantly and also allows people to make decisions about when and how they can best manage their safety in the heat.

Partnering with 25 different groups (and also directly with community members) has allowed the Council to have a massive reach into the targeted vulnerable communities. When developing the campaign, the Council consulted heavily with CALD residents (via networks and meetings at CoHealth centres) to work out what was wanted and needed by vulnerable groups, and the best way to deliver heatwave resilience support to them. The Council worked with businesses (pharmacies) located next to housing estates where there were high numbers of CALD residents. Pharmacies were stocked with Council heat safety products and information in Chinese, Vietnamese, Hakka and Greek. Pharmacists were able to target CALD residents who were doubly vulnerable to heatwaves because of the medication they were taking. When residents picked up medication, they were given heat safety resources in their language. The Council devolved responsibility for running a number of community information sessions to Victoria Police, Red Cross and also community members themselves. This meant that ownership was being taken over directly by those who needed to manage heatwave risks.

Interestingly, some community members who attended heat safety sessions became so engaged with the campaign, that they started to support the Council’s campaign by running their own heat safety projects and information stands at events, using products provided by the Council. One community member involved their local craft group to make cooling neck ties, to distribute these to vulnerable people within their area. Council provided the material to do this. Other rooming house tenants decided to distribute Council’s heat safety information and products at a massive social housing festival. Even though the campaign ended after summer, the police continue to provide safety-focused English classes for new migrants, as this activity proved so useful in creating trust and providing important information between police and new migrants.

The project created new relationships and forged stronger social connectivity

• within the broader Yarra community;
• between the community and government agencies; and,
• between government agencies and social service providers. This has led to an increase in emergency management activities between the Council and its campaign partners and has resulted in new resilience-building activities between CALD groups and campaign stakeholders.

Additional Project Details