Whittlesea Township and Surrounds Community Emergency Plan

Project Summary

This project builds upon the success of existing work of the Whittlesea Community Resilience Committee (WCRC) to develop a Community Emergency Plan (CEP) as a locally owned and recognised approach for future emergencies. The Community Emergency Plan will be an invaluable community tool that will be used to help the community to prepare for emergencies that may affect them in the future.

Background and Situation Context

During the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires Whittlesea Township was a main focal point for firefighting co-ordination, immediate relief of displaced persons and domestic animals. It was a central hub for recovery activities immediately and for several years after. This publication seeks to build on the knowledge gained over the recovery period.

The Whittlesea Township and Surrounds Community Emergency Plan stemmed from the Whittlesea Community Recovery Committee’s (CRC) project ‘Building Community Resilience’ under the auspice of the Whittlesea Community House. With community champions driving the project, support and funding from the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), Emergency Management Victoria, the Whittlesea Community Resilience Committee and the City of Whittlesea it has enabled the development of a local Community Emergency Plan.

The Whittlesea Community Emergency Plan provides a local focus on emergencies and support for the community in being prepared for any event.

Activities

The project encompassed many activities including

• Intensive research of community emergency projects across the globe
• Community meetings and workshops to develop the plan content
• Regular working group meetings
• Consultation with local and regional emergency services
• Community displays at community markets and events
• Meetings and presentations to a range of local government departments, agencies, Monash University, local services groups, sports clubs.
• Community conversations

For the desired format of the publication, we collaborated with a graphic designer and printer.

Each of these activities captured a much broad community input, feedback and support for the plan.

All meetings and workshops were open and the entire community invited to participate.

Results

Consistent with the aims of the Community Emergency Plan, the community would like to secure funding support to pursue the future development of a Community Emergency Response Network (CERN) and will identify key community organisations, individuals and resources that will come together as a network to respond in times of Emergency or as needed by the community. The network is based on identified community sectors and will meet during the year to develop their collective response to community crisis, undertake planning and risk assessment and receive training.

The principle behind the CERN is for sector representatives to support Emergency Management teams by providing a local resource to support effective two-way communication that reflects local knowledge and experience.

Additional Project Details