Name: ADRC presents Knowledge Week | Day One
Start: 0001-01-01
End: 0001-01-01
Location: National

		Day One: Collaborating for impact Monday 24 August, 2020
1.00pm		Keynote presentation \| Disasters, climate change and a pandemic: what 2020 has shown us about building a resilient tomorrow Alice Hill
2.00pm		Navigating resilience in a wicked world Miriam Lumb, SAFECOM & Emily Humphreys, Wicked Lab
2.30pm		Using peer support to tailor emergency preparedness to the individual support needs of people with disability in emergencies Michelle Villeneuve, The University of Sydney
3.00pm		Partnerships leading community resilience Jo Brown, Southern Grampians Glenelg Primary Care Partnership

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�KEYNOTE: In conversation with Alice Hill

Disasters, climate change and a pandemic: what 2020 has shown us about building a resilient tomorrow

2020 gave everyone a chance to experience catastrophic risk at once. Before COVID-19 began its spread across the world, experts had warned that for pandemics, it was a question of when, not if. The pandemic quickly exposed a lack of preparedness. It disrupted supply chains, crossed borders, and crushed health care systems. As the disease spread destruction, people still suffered from other hazards—bigger wildfires, higher storm surge, and greater heat—for which experts have warned it’s a question of when, not if.

Climate-worsened extremes drove people out of their homes even in the midst of the pandemic, increasing the likelihood of catching the coronavirus. This year has shown how concurrent disasters can multiply risk. To prepare, governments, businesses, communities, and individuals must redouble efforts to build resilience in a more hazard-prone future. Reducing risk in advance of disasters will save lives and money. When it comes to climate risk that means building resilience to new extremes.

Speaker bio

Alice C. Hill: has an uncommon blend of experience – as a federal prosecutor, judge, special assistant to the president, and senior director for the National Security Council. She currently serves as senior fellow for climate change policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she focuses on risks, consequences, and responses associated with climate change. While at the White House under President Obama, she led the development of national policy to prepare for catastrophic risks, including climate change and biological threats. Hill previously served as a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Her coauthored book, Building a Resilient Tomorrow, was published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. In 2020, Yale University awarded her the Public Voices Fellowship on the Climate Crisis.

Speaker bios

Miriam Lumb:
In her current role, Miriam develops and contributes to emergency management policy and strategy at a state and national level. She facilitates a greater focus on resilience and risk reduction through leading the development and implementation of SA’s Disaster Resilience Strategy. Miriam spent six years in emergency services at Red Cross, working in an operational capacity, disaster recovery in the Philippines and leading community resilience initiatives. She has worked for DFAT managing the Smartraveller public information campaign and supporting crisis response. Miriam has a Masters in Social Change and Development, specialising in Organisational Leadership and Capacity Building and has a strong commitment to influencing positive and lasting change.

Emily Humphreys:
As the cofounder and CEO of Wicked Lab, Emily leads a team building the capacity of communities, organisations and governments to address wicked problems by creating systemic change. Wicked Lab supports multi-stakeholder groups to address complex social policy problems (wicked problems) through its Research, Complex Systems Leadership Program, Online Tool for Systemic Change and Systemic Innovation Lab Methodology. Emily was one of 40 winners represented in South Australia’s 2018 40 under 40 awards. She holds a Masters of Science and Technology Commercialisation (University of Adelaide), Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship (University of Adelaide) and a Bachelor of Social Science (University of Adelaide).

Presentation outline

Stronger Together, South Australia’s first Disaster Resilience Strategy, provides a foundation for state and local governments, non-government organisations, businesses, and communities to work together, contributing to a more resilient State.

The co-design process saw over 500 South Australians contributing their thoughts, ideas and experiences with the findings highlighting the complex nature of resilience. Efforts to reduce risk and strengthen resilience cross organisational boundaries and sectors including climate change, emergency services, health, infrastructure, business, social services and education. It’s bigger than Government, with all of society having a role to play.

With characteristics of being a ‘wicked problem’, disaster resilience is interconnected, multi-causal and adaptive. As wicked problems can be challenging or potentially impossible to ‘solve,’ they can be equally difficult to measure and demonstrate progress and impact.

This presentation will discuss the unique characteristics of wicked problems, and outline why a complexity-based, systems approach is best suited to tackling these kinds of problems.

SAFECOM has partnered with South Australian company, Wicked Lab. Wicked Lab help build the capacity of organisations and governments to tackle wicked problems by looking at actions that can collectively contribute to systems change.

SAFECOM's Resilience Team has participated in the Wicked Lab training and is using their online tool to map, track and measure systems change collective outcomes and impact. These skills and tools focus on; enabling communities to take action, building the adaptive capacity of communities and assisting governments to create the conditions required for change.

There are many initiatives taking place across local and state government, NGOs and organisations that are contributing to the resilience of the State and implementation of Stronger Together. Emily and Miriam will demonstrate how SAFECOM is using Wicked Lab’s Tool for Systemic Change to map these ecosystems and measure systemic impact.

Using peer support to tailor emergency preparedness to the individual support needs of people with disability in emergencies

Presentation slides: Using peer support to tailor emergency preparedness to the individual support needs of people with disability in emergencies (PDF 4.4MB)

Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) Peer Leadership Program is an innovative strategy to optimise emergency preparedness outcomes for people with disability through plans tailored to their individual capabilities and support needs in emergencies. In this study, the P-CEP was used by 25 peer leaders with disability to first learn about and engage in personal emergency preparedness themselves. Peer leaders then supported the development of peer-to-peer approaches (support group; individual mentoring) with the overall aim of advancing personal emergency preparedness for people with disability reaching over 300 people in their peer support networks.

Speaker bio

Associate Professor Michelle Villeneuve leads the Disability-Inclusive Community Development research stream at the Centre for Disability Research and Policy. She is Activity Lead at the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Strengthening Rehabilitation Capacity in Health Systems. Michelle leads an international program of research that addresses inequities that people with disability experience in everyday living and situations of natural hazard disaster and other emergencies. Michelle is leading the development of Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDRR) in Australia - bringing together health, community, disability and emergency services sectors to establish cross-sector DIDRR policy and practice.

Presentation outline

BACKGROUND: Disaster risk management practices are not fully accessible and inclusive of the support needs of people with disability. Consequently, people with disability lack information and resources they need to prepare for disasters. This puts people with disability at greater risk before, during and after a disaster and increases pressure on emergency services who do not have the resources to respond to the specific support needs of citizens with disability during emergencies.

PURPOSE: We will report on an innovative program that gave people with disability the tools and training to tailor emergency preparedness to their unique support needs. Our aim was to increase the self-reliance of people with disability in emergencies and planned reliance on the people who support them.

APPROACH: We used an existing Peer Support Program to build capacity in Peer Leaders to enable individualised emergency preparedness planning with people with disability; leveraging networks within the disability advocacy sector to empower people with disability to develop their own emergency preparedness plan and communicate that plan with their support network.

FINDINGS: Twenty peer leaders who participated in intensive training on Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (PCEP) increased their competence and confidence in emergency preparedness planning. These peer leaders went on to deliver PCEP peer support through (a) Peer Support Group Education and (b) Peer Mentoring. Collectively, they reached over 300 people with disability in diverse Queensland communities. Peer leaders acted as a conduit for translating emergency management information and resources into tailored preparedness planning support for their members.

IMPLICATIONS: This program developed capacity of people with disability to lead disaster risk reduction while gathering needed information about what people with disability can do for themselves and what they need support for in emergencies. Through local collaborations we are sharing findings with Councils to improve local emergency management planning and inclusion practices.

Partnerships leading community resilience

Presentation slides: Partnerships leading community resilience (PDF 2.2MB)

Climate change is emerging as one of the biggest impacts on human health and wellbeing. Across Victoria, Primary Care Partnerships (PCP) have a network of over 800 partner agencies who provide health and social welfare services to Victorian communities. Many who access these services are some of our states most vulnerable people, including vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Through a partnership with the Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation, Southern Grampians Glenelg PCP is working with other Victorian PCPs to understand the impacts of climate change at a local level and to mobilise the partnerships to enhance community resilience.

Speaker bio

Southern Grampians Glenelg Primary Care Partnership (SGGPCP) has identified the impacts of climate change as an emerging health issue and since 2008, Jo Brown has been leading this work. Bringing her experience from over many years in emergency management and community development as well as tertiary education and specialist education, Jo has been working with the 20 partner agencies of the SGGPCP to build capacity to enhance community resilience in the face of climate change. SGGPCP has led a number of award winning projects in South West Victoria including Balmoral Fire Connect and ALLready, as well as Rural People: Resilient Futures, Enhancing Networks for Resilience, Glenelg SAVES and Pass the Parcel. Jo brings a passion for the principles of social justice and commitment to collaborative approaches to the work of the SGGPCP.

Presentation outline

Climate change is emerging as one of the biggest impacts on human health and wellbeing. As recently as January 2019, The Lancet reported that climate change can be considered a pandemic because of its sweeping effects on the health of humans and the natural systems we depend on. The 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes the impacts on human health and social welfare are varied and can span the full breadth from the immediate and underlying determinants of health including impacts of extreme weather, access to life essentials (food and water) through to social disruption and loss of diversity.

Across Victoria, Primary Care Partnerships (PCP) have a network of over 800 partner agencies who provide health and social welfare services to Victorian communities. Many who access these services are some of our states most vulnerable people, including vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. In addition PCPs have intimate knowledge of their local communities having employed a variety of place based initiatives to enhance the health and wellbeing of their communities over the past 18 years, they also have links to policy makers and researchers. These attributes mean the PCP platform is particularly valuable to further embed climate change resilience in communities across Victoria. PCPs require support and knowledge transfer to build their understanding, capacity and capability to focus on this work.

Southern Grampians Glenelg Primary Care Partnership (SGGPCP) is leading PCPs across Victoria in climate change work having identified climate change as a significant health issue in 2007 and working with their partners, stakeholders, community, research and policy makers to build local capacity to enhance resilience. Through a newly formed partnership with the Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation, SGGPCP are working with other Victorian PCPs to understand the impacts of climate change at a local level and to mobilise the partnerships to enhance community resilience.

Using an innovative Community Based Systems Dynamics Approach, the PCPs supported by the Global Obesity Centre (GLOBE) at Deakin University are using Group Model Building methodology to create a visual model of the local system. Using this approach enables a shared understanding of a particularly complex social issue and identifies levers to act to enhance community resilience to implement systems change. Working initially with 3 Victorian PCPs, the project learnings will be extended to other PCPs and similar organisations using a Theory of Innovation approach whereby the “early adopting” organisations transfer knowledge and strategies to others to increase capacity.

Our long term vision is that Victorian PCPs and similar organisations are recognised as a valued leadership platform to build community resilience to climate change. This will mean that the PCPs themselves have sufficient capacity, knowledge and expertise to identify, implement and embed sustainable strategies and actions across their partner agencies and the broader community. It also means that PCPs are recognised by government and policy makers as being well placed to lead action and build capacity.

Conference homepage

Day Two | Local leadership

Day Three | Community creating change

Day Four | Business fostering resilience

Day One: Collaborating for impact

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