Further Opportunity to Join Resilience Planning Working Group
Due to the unfortunate postponement of the first RRP Resilience Planning Workshop due to Covid-19, Shoalhaven City Council has extended the opportunity for interested community members to join the project's Working Group.
The Group will meet over 8-10 months (final time frame to be confirmed with participants) to develop a whole of Shoalhaven Community-led Resilience Plan.
The development of a Community-led Resilience Plan provides community members with a unique opportunity to influence decision making through participation in a planning process, facilitated by experts from Griffith University and supported by Shoalhaven City Council and Resilience NSW.
Community-led planning takes an alternative approach to the traditional model of government led action, and it encourages communities to empower themselves to address issues that affect their quality of life. It is well suited to issues that are complex, potentially controversial and require strong community support and involvement, such as responding to the growing threat from severe weather events.
Working Group Activities
Participation in the Working Group requires no prior experience or knowledge of planning. However, participants will be asked to commit to attending a minimum of 8 workshops over the duration of 6-8 months and to engaging with the Griffith University facilitation team when the need arises. A small amount of reading and commenting on workshop outputs may also be required throughout the duration of the project.
Participants will be involved in identifying ways to enhance the Shoalhaven’s capacity to respond to current and future challenges, including increased incidents and severity of extreme weather events along with climate change. Participants will also be given a platform to actively contribute to the development of a shared vision for the future of the region, as well as the identification and testing of a range of plans, policies and strategies that will be needed to support the delivery of that vision.
The workshops will consist of a series of activities that will guide the development of the Resilience Plan, including:
- Undertaking a SWOT analysis (identification of the regions strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
- Development of a future vision for the Shoalhaven region
- Testing of existing plans and policies against two different future scenarios
- Identification and testing of existing and new preferred policies and strategies
- The development of a “road map” that will assist the Shoalhaven achieve its vision whilst enhancing its resilience to deal with unpredictable events.
Community Sub-plans and Complimentary Plans
Additional workshops will be provided to support individual communities who seek to complement the city-wide plan with local community sub-plans that account for individual community needs and aspirations.
Workshop Facilitation
All workshops will be facilitated by Darryl Low Choy, who is a Professor of Environmental and Landscape Planning at Griffith University. Prof Low Choy and his research team have worked extensively with communities in Australia and abroad to help establish community-led planning responses to natural hazards, land management and peri-urban development issues. For the past four years they have worked in Shoalhaven City with Council and a number of local communities.
To express your interest in joining the Working Group, please email council@shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au providing your name, phone number and the town/suburb in which you reside.
