Holding space in the Blue Mountains

Last week, Plan C’s founder, Jean Renouf, was invited to the communities in The Blue Mountains. For residents there, the devastating bushfires of 2019−20 have left a lasting mark - their extent, duration, timing and ferocity was unprecedented. His journey, hosted in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, Resilient Villages Blue Mountains, and the Blackheath Area Neighbourhood Centre, saw workshops unfold in the Southern Highlands, Springwood, and Blackheath. These workshops were designed to serve as a momentary pause for participants, allowing them to heal and fortify their minds for the resilient journey ahead.

Special thanks go out to Resilient Villages for their effort in rallying emergency services personnel, council staff, and the local community members of the Blue Mountains.

The workshops were very well received and it is likely that we will collaborate further. The feedback received resonated deeply as it aptly expressed what our unique contribution to the community resilience space is. We bring practical preparedness and resilience alongside the deep work that allows to transform disaster and climate change trauma into a strength. 

Here's a snippet of the feedback:

"...I am quite moved by the skillful way you combine your lived experience of disaster response across countries, years, and settings, bringing understanding of real needs and threats while holding the deeper work of meeting the grief and overwhelm we face... Your approach allowed individuals to dive deep without exhaustion, making the process democratic and accessible... Your gentle yet firm redirection of trauma patterns to self-enquiry and radical acceptance, without making it a spiritual practice, was genuinely transformative. Particularly for the men in the room, you gave them a path forward... a way to accept and allow themselves some rest and peace."

As we reflect upon the challenges that regions like the Blue Mountains face, it becomes increasingly clear how imperative it is to hold space for trauma, to reorient lives, and to prepare for the uncertain future, both mentally and pragmatically, but most importantly, together.