DR:FR Victoria

Whittlesea community members
Media releases

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.

The Disaster Resilient: Future Ready program is a national initiative that aims to support and strengthen the capacity and capability of remote, rural & regional communities to thrive and be resilient to the impacts of climate, natural disasters and other disruptions.

The multi-year place-based program takes a community-led approach to build knowledge of climate risks, encourage collaboration, catalyse leadership and facilitate collective action to strengthen social capital and build community resilience.

This program partners with specific place-based cohorts of communities. Learn more below.

Proudly supported by
Sidney Myer Fund
Simon Kucher & Partners

Participating communities

FRRR is currently working with the following Victorian communities on the next iteration of the DR:FR program:

  • Beaufort
  • Korumburra
  • Myrtleford
  • Paynesville
  • St Arnaud
  • Whittlesea
  • Yarra Junction

If you are a member of one of the above communities and would like to discuss the program in more detail, please contact our DR:FR Coordinator, Jacqui Bell at info@frrr.org.au.

If you and your community are not listed in the above, but are interested in community-led resilience and participating in the DR:FR program, please get in touch to register interest.

  Strengthening Resilience for a Thriving Community:
Workshop Recording

  Presentation Slides (PDF)

On 15 July 2021 FRRR hosted an online workshop with participants from across all seven of our shortlisted communities.  The workshop provided space for participants to explore key resilience concepts with support from our guest speaker Paul Ryan and learn more about the Disaster Resilient : Future Ready Program in Victoria.

Throughout July and August 2021, FRRR will continue to collaborate with interested community representatives from across the seven shortlisted communities to support their expression of interest to participate in the program.

If you’d like to learn more and/or get involved, please email j.bell@frrr.org.au.

DR:FR program phases

The DR:FR program phases create space and opportunity for a responsive approach to community-led resilience. The activities, approaches and supports provided in each phase can be adapted to meet the unique aspirations, needs and contexts of each community.

We understand that communities may be at different stages of the ‘whole of community’ resilience journey, and so work with communities across three different pathways:

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, follow these links: