DR:FR Victoria

Whittlesea community members

Communities that are engaged, connected, empowered, and have high social capital tend to respond and recover better from natural disasters and other disruptions than those with lesser capacity in these areas. They are also best placed to determine the most effective approaches to building their capacity and capabilities for their situation and context.

Disaster Resilient: Future Ready is a national initiative that supports remote, rural and regional communities to lead initiatives that improve wellbeing, increase preparedness and strengthen resilience, so they have greater capacity to endure, adapt and evolve positively when faced with the impacts of climate, disasters and other disruptions.

Over several-years FRRR works at a hyper-local level with grass roots organisations and community representatives to build local knowledge of climate risks, catalyse leadership and facilitate collective action to enact solutions that build on local knowledge and strengths at the intersections of people and place to strengthen social capital and build community resilience.

The DR:FR Victoria program partners with a cohort of place-based community working groups and their communities. Learn more below.

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DR:FR VIC Community Partners

The communities of Korumburra, Myrtleford and Whittlesea township and surrounds are partnering with FRRR through the Disaster Resilient: Future Ready program in Victoria from 2021-24.

The DR:FR VIC program began in 2022 with a series of activities to bring community working group members together and engage the broader community to share knowledge, experiences and aspirations so that they can be better prepared for future climate disasters. 

Community working groups continue to meet regularly and all have now accessed funding from FRRR to carry out activities identified by their community as important to strengthening their community resilience. A total of $120,839 in grants have been made to the three communities to progress their priority projects.  

Explore the sections below to learn more about each community and their focus through the DR:FR partnership.

FRRR is delighted to support each community’s passion and persistence for identifying their own priorities and acting to build resilience to climate impacts, in order to make a difference when the next emergency arrives.

More partners welcome

There is strong interest from other communities (in Victoria and other states) to partner with FRRR and our program supporters through the DR:FR initiative. We currently have several communities keen and ready to jump on board and we would love to work with them.

We are grateful to our current partners for making the Victorian DR:FR program possible and would love to hear from others with the capacity to partner with us to expand the initiative in the future.

Please contact Nina O’Brien, Disaster Resilience and Recovery Lead.

More information

The first iteration of the Disaster Resilient: Future Ready model was piloted in three communities in New South Wales. In response to learnings from the pilot project and new research and practices in disaster recovery and community-led resilience, the model has been reviewed and adapted for the Victorian iteration in 2021-2023.

If you are interested in learning more about the DR:FR initiative including its background and model visit www.frrr.org.au/drfr.

We also encourage you to explore this Critical Dimensions of Community-Led Resilience Building summary.

For more information about any of the Disaster Resilient: Future Ready program activities or to discuss how they could be applied to other communities, please contact the DR:FR Program Manager Caroline Larcher on c.larcher@frrr.org.au.