For the most part, community groups have embraced this way of connecting. For the Investing in Rural Community Futures program, our on-the-ground facilitators kept a pulse on the community, but most of our interactions, including bringing on board new communities, had to be done in a hybrid model, with community members together in the room, and FRRR staff online. We have invested in engaging digital tools, such as Mural, Kumu and online digital whiteboards. The rollout of the Disaster Resilient: Future Ready program into Victoria had to shift entirely online, but communities were still keen to learn about the model and to start exploring how they want to enhance their disaster preparedness and to strengthen their resilience.

We also collaborated with partners, such as Our Community’s Institute of Community Directors with whom we ran a webinar on governance, finding funding, and volunteers, with almost 2,000 people registering.

Our engagement with First Nations communities and organisations has also continued to develop and be sustained. This would be even greater if travel had been possible across the year, especially to remote communities, but that will be a priority as soon as it is permitted. The impacts of restrictions can also be seen in the fluctuation in granting activity in remote communities and particularly Western Australia and the Northern Territory. There is a direct correlation between levels of applications and distributions and FRRR staff engagement. For example, following our last face to face workshop in the Northern Territory, we saw a 300% increase in grant applications.