So much creativity, generosity and persistence!
Seriously, we were impressed and humbled by the enormous effort that participants to our Resilient Communities - Facilitators training which ended last month, put into enacting actions to make their communities more resilient.
From writing letters to their local papers, being interviewed on community radio, and setting up information stalls at the markets, to setting up communication networks in their neighbourhoods, and installing water tanks, solar panels and water-saving devices in their homes, program participants really stepped up to the challenge of how to make their communities more resilient!
Resilient Byron, with funding from the Northern Rivers Community Foundation, partnered with OzGreen to provide “Resilient Communities”, a series of free workshops that allowed communities to generate their own solutions to local and global concerns, focusing on seven key areas, which include climate change, fire and ecosystems, water, food, infrastructures and economy, and health resilience.
As a result of the project an average of 11 residents were trained to become facilitators in community resilience , and then went on to run 33 workshops in their local areas over seven months. Workshops were provided in Byron Bay, Suffolk Park, Mullumbimby, Main Arm, Uki, Federal/Hinterland, Possum Creek and Lismore.
243 attendances to workshops have been recorded, and participants in these workshops undertook the following actions:
Installed or upgraded infrastructure in homes and communities: 4 x water tanks installed, 5x new solar panels and 2x upgraded solar panels, 2x composting toilets, 2x buying electric cars, 10x planting vegetable gardens, 8x planting fire retardant and native trees on properties.
Prepared for natural disasters: 84x introduced to RFS Fire Plan, 59x introduced to SES storm and flood plan, 28x introduced to Red Cross Rediplan. 10x cleaned gutters, 8x pruned foliage around their houses to prepare for fire and flood disasters.
Created/deepened community networks: 4x neighbourhood WhatsApp groups established (Bangalow, Main Arm, Possum Creek and Suffolk Park), 3x neighbourhood community events hosted (Possum Creek bonfire, Possum Creek Christmas party, Bangalow Christmas party), creation of skills and assets registers and identification of vulnerable community members in progress for 3x neighbourhoods (Bangalow, Possum Creek and Main Arm), planning for disasters at a community level in progress in 4x neighbourhoods (Bangalow, Possum Creek, Main Arm and Suffolk Park).
Changed household practices: 32x stopped or reduced buying plastic packaging, 20x committed to using less water, 17x committed to using less electricity.
Changed consumption practices: 2x changed from a big bank to a local credit union, 3x changed to a green energy provider, 34x committed to shopping locally.
Lobbied all levels of government for change: 12x wrote letters to local MPs, 2x posed questions to Council candidates, etc. This program has given people the confidence and motivation to participate actively in the democratic process in order to make themselves and their communities, as well as their democracy, more resilient.
Researched and disseminated information: e.g. on local fire conditions, on best practices, on infrastructure - disseminated via newspaper articles and letters to the editor of The Echo (e.g. ‘Worried about the impact of fire on your community?’, 16/7/21; ‘Waste to Energy’, 27/10/21, ‘Water resilience’, 23/9/21). The Resilient Communities project has been the subject of six separate BayFM radio interviews with RB leaders and community facilitators on the EcoFutures program. Information has also been disseminated via community meetings/workshops, social gatherings, market stalls, etc.
We were all the more surprised by the success of this project, given that it was implemented at the height of Covid restrictions, making community gatherings quite challenging! Facilitators demonstrated a high degree of creativity, generosity and persistence in running their workshops!
As the Suffolk Park/Byron facilitator put it, “I have really valued the opportunity to grow in the space of the Resilient Communities program. To present in this form has taken me to my edge and that was exciting and something I will continue.”
(see below some of the paintings Daya Pepper painted after being inspired at the Resilient Communities workshops)
