2015-06-23 I&S Agenda - Item 5 - Local Disaster Recovery Plan - Attachment 2

                          Noosa Local Disaster Recovery Plan 2015/2016


A suggested action plan format is at Appendix 27.11.


14.    Community engagement strategies
The LRC and the LDRC must consider the community engagement strategies that will be
needed to ensure the community is involved and effectively contributes to the recovery
effort. The LDRC should consider the stakeholders and how best to engage with them
during the stages of recovery planning. Community engagement for recovery should use
normal community engagement processes as detailed in the Local Disaster Management
Plan. They should be documented in the Recovery Operational Plan. Two specific
strategies to engage with the community during recovery are local advisory groups and the
conduct of public forums or community meetings.

14.1 Local advisory groups
Forming local advisory groups are often an effective way of involving the community in the
recovery effort. These groups may be geographically based (a town or locality); or they
may be functionally based e.g. economic, environmental, infrastructure or human/social.
The formation, composition and terms of reference of these Local Advisory Groups will
depend on the needs of the community and the willingness of the community to participate
(note members of the community may not have the capacity to participate).

They are formed at the discretion of the LDRC and Sub-groups as required. Local Advisory
Groups have no defined structure or governance arrangements. They may have a pre-
defined membership or be ad-hoc in nature. They provide a mechanism to enable effective
engagement with the community for planning and decision making.

14.2 Public forums and community meetings
Public forums and/or community meetings may be called in order to listen to and talk with
communities affected by the disaster. They are useful in the needs analysis process and
should be undertaken throughout recovery to maintain public dialogue, resolve issues and to
gauge recovery progress.

Public forums are often specific to a particular function e.g.: a public forum for businesses
that are economically affected by the event; or land owners affected by environmental issues
arising from the disaster. Community meetings are usually geographically focused and often
cover a broad suite of issues across the four pillars of recovery. They are conducted at the
discretion of the LDRC and Sub-groups as required. Local Advisory Groups may augment
public forums and community meetings.

It is important that such meetings/forums are accessible, well promoted and involve
community and business leaders who can disseminate information to and from the
community.

It can be valuable, where possible, to identify and utilize existing community events or
activities where the community gathers rather than initiate an additional activity that the
community may be hesitant to attend that is not in a community environment that they feel
comfortable with and trust.


15.    Training and exercising
15.1 Training
Core members of the LDRC are required to undertake specific training in disaster
management and recovery under the Queensland Disaster Management Training
Framework. This training includes:
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