One year on, Healthy North Coast and the NSW Government continue to support Northern NSW communities impacted by the 2022 floods through Community Wellbeing and Resilience grants already delivering benefits on the ground.
Funded through the NSW Government’s three-year, $5 million flood recovery funding package, the Community Wellbeing and Resilience Flood Recovery Grants program supports individuals and communities to recover from the impacts of natural disaster and build their capacity to face future challenges.
Healthy North Coast Chief Executive Officer, Monika Wheeler, said a range of activities and programs are supporting communities to connect, learn and heal through the recovery process.
‘All funded activities build on the foundations of community connection, which is our region’s great strength,’ Ms Wheeler said.
‘The programs have been designed by local communities to facilitate tailored, community-led solutions that acknowledge that recovery is a multi-year process. For this reason, funding will be released in stages to better respond to community needs as they arise,’ said Ms Wheeler.
NSW Minister for Regional Health and Mental Health Bronnie Taylor said it is important that Northern NSW communities are given the tools and support they need to continue their recovery from last year’s devastating flooding events.
“These grants will help provide a much-needed boost for communities who have been through a very difficult time, and the NSW Liberal and Nationals Government is committed to ensuring we are doing everything we can to support them.”
In this funding round, eleven Northern NSW organisations will deliver an initial $2.7 million in grant activities, with a key focus on community recovery, vulnerable population groups and First Nations people.
The programs include funding for grassroots community-based recovery organisations including Wardell Community Organised Resilience Effort (CORE), Resilient Lismore, Resilient Uki and Murwillumbah Community Recovery and Resilience project.
‘A new group of grassroots organisations have emerged organically in response to the floods and we are building a new model of community-led recovery in our region,’ said Joel Orchard, Executive Director of Wardell CORE.
‘With funding from Healthy North Coast and others, we have been able to implement wellbeing activities and in-house mental health support, leading to a new sense of community connectedness in Wardell and surrounding villages that were devastated by the floods.’
Mr Orchard said Wardell CORE was seeing around 350 people a week, with many seeking peer support and company.
‘We have counsellors on site, so that people don’t have to dance between multiple practitioners,’ he said. ‘We’re dealing with a typically older demographic. Everything we do is therapeutic by nature.’
Aboriginal community-controlled organisation Rekindling the Spirit and The Returning Indigenous Corporation have also been funded through the program. Rekindling the Spirit will auspice a Community Healing Hub and a Mobile Healing Hub that delivers services and healing activities to First Nations people across the Northern Rivers.
The Returning’s recovery program includes a series of cultural connection retreats, an Indigenous Knowledge Hub and a podcast series that will reflect upon and consolidate lessons learned through Indigenous community-led recovery following the Lismore floods.
An additional group of programs are tailored to support displaced community members, women, young people, older people and LGBTQ+ community members thought trauma education, counselling, case management and recovery activities for individuals impacted by the floods.
A full list of funded programs is available here.
Healthy North Coast will call for proposals for remaining funds in mid-2023.
