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Canberra Today 16°/17° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Natural disaster grants for Canberra organisations

simon corbell

Commonwealth Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan, and ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbell, have announced 20 projects that will share in $5.2 million to help communities withstand the effects of disasters and emergencies in the ACT.

Mr Keenan said the funding partnership between the Commonwealth and the ACT Government strengthens the territory’s disaster resilience through community projects and investment work to boost territory-wide resilience capability.

“Although many natural disasters are unpredictable, we can all be better prepared. It is only by working together we can reduce the potentially destructive impacts of future disasters such as bushfires,” Mr Keenan said.

Simon says prevention is better than cure when it came to managing emergencies:

“By investing in projects and initiatives to make the Canberra community more resilient and better prepared, we can aim to lessen the devastating impact of disasters in the territory.”

The Natural Disaster Resilience Program (NDRP) is a two-year disaster mitigation and community resilience grant program that is funded through shared contributions of the Commonwealth Government, the ACT Government and eligible applicants.

There are two streams of funding programs under the 2013-15 NDRP, one for community-based projects and the other for capability-based projects.

“The community-based projects address disaster risk priorities which help the community better withstand the effects of disasters and emergencies. It also provides support for volunteers and creates partnerships between community organisations and government,” Mr Corbell said.

“The successful community recipients include Anglicare, Volunteering ACT, Lifeline, Relationships Australia and Southside Community Services.”

The full list of recipients as received by “CityNews” is unbelievably rough and includes acronyms not usually used for public consumption including “WoG” for “Whole of Government” and others unknown to us, they are presented below as received:

  • Anglicare – Retention, Recruitment and preparedness of ACER volunteers. Proposal includes component for training in Mental Health First Aid, which will be open to other agencies.
  • Southside Community Services Inc – Develop, present & test community disaster resilience & recovery package for Oaks Estate. Produce final analysis report.
  • Volunteering ACT – Proposal to raise the profile of volunteering across all sectors of the community. Outcomes to include training and information sessions, development of best practice guide for engaging emergency volunteers, introduction of concept to schools.
  • Relationships Australia on behalf of disaster recovery counselling committee – Skill development of 49 DRCC clinicians providing trauma focused therapy. addresses all risks. Addresses gaps identified in 2013 training.
  • Lifeline (a) – training in Psychological first aid for the community.
  • Lifeline (b) – Disaster preparedness packs for volunteers, including identifying vests.
  • ESA – Deployable Trauma Response.
  • ESA – Cross border SPOT
  • ESA – SBMP – Strategic Bushfire Mgt Plan
  • ESA – Strategic Bushfire Capability
  • ESA – Community Education Awareness – increased community awareness to Bushfires
  • ESA – W o G – Information Management System
  • ESA / EPD – develop floodplain management strategy for ACT with risk management manual and plans.
  • Health (a) – medical response team at calvary, set up and exercise capability.
  • Health (b) Test and evaluate 3 hazard specific plans under the health emergency plan.
  • St John – Event/incident health support vehicle available at short notice.
  • TaMS – Fire Mitigation access, remediation, infrastructure and analysis.
  • TaMS – Local Disaster Coordination Centre Development and infrastructure upgrades for a ACT Government Biosecurity / Local Government Coordination Centre
  • Community Services Directorate – Access to emergency preparedness tool in multiple languages. Addresses all risks.
  • SEMB – Project manager to under take NSDP

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