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Being emergency ready
12
ISV
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ANNUAL REPORT 20202021
Being emergency ready
When the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley flooded earlier this year, an ISV project to promote flood preparedness proved invaluable.
Community surveys undertaken in 2018 revealed that there was a lack of awareness of flood risk and limited preparedness undertaken within social housing communities in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley. The social housing sector was identified as a “community of concern” for its high concentration of social and physical vulnerability, with around 3,300 properties at risk of being impacted by flooding — either by direct floodwater or essential services being cut off.
Many social housing residents have complex needs due to mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, ageing, and other factors. There is an increasing proportion of social housing tenants aged 65 years and above in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley. Many have poor mobility, have physical or intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions that impair their functional capacity. Many of the tenants live in isolation and have no connections with the wider community or communication avenues such as social media.
The Get Ready for Flood Social Housing Sector Project was a partnership between Infrastructure NSW, Inner Sydney Voice, and the University of Sydney. Infrastructure NSW manages the flood strategy for Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley, is well networked in the region, and was able to advocate for needs to be addressed as identified through the project. Inner Sydney Voice has a long history of working with tenants, housing providers and community organisations, and is well-regarded for its resilience work in the Inner Sydney region.
The project aimed to develop lasting partnerships between stakeholders to promote flood awareness and disaster risk reduction as a shared responsibility; empower local stakeholders to increase resilience and emergency preparedness throughout their community; and embed preparedness building activities and strategies into the local community.
During phase one of the project, a Social Housing Community Resilience Network was established. The network brought together tenant representatives, housing providers, community organisations, local councils, emergency services and regional government representatives. Initially, the group met monthly with the aim to identify and progress pieces of work to support the strengthening of resilience within social housing communities, including mapping housing properties against the floodplain and the production of a simple flood preparedness resource for tenants.
Another focus in phase one was to build relationships with housing providers in the floodplain and link in with and enhance existing community development work for the purpose of connecting directly with tenants and strengthening resilience at the grassroots level. During this phase, Inner Sydney Voice worked with University of Sydney to develop a group work facilitator guide using the Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness tool. This could then be used to partner with housing providers and local organisations to facilitate community events and information sessions.
Tenant engagement was a core project focus in phase one and it was intended that this would be carried over into phase two. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic engagement became limited. Instead, the focus turned to continuing to strengthen relationships with already participating tenant representatives and capturing their feedback throughout the project. Another focus was the production of a flood preparedness flyer, with the tenant representatives informing the content and layout.
On Friday 19 March 2021, the day came that the Get Ready for Flood Social Housing Sector Project had been preparing for when the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley experienced a 1-in-50 chance per-year flood. Approximately 3,000 people were successfully evacuated, which only goes to prove it really does pay to be prepared.
13
ISV
ANNUAL REPORT 20202021
