GenWest's Resilient Communities team recently presented findings from Our Community, Our Voice: A Gendered and Culturally Diverse Lens on an Urban Disaster, at the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council Conference, AFAC25.
Aligning with the conference theme, Embracing radical transformation: The future is now, the Resilient Communities team shifted the paradigm of disaster recovery to centre lived experience and drive systemic change.
Drawing on the team's experience of the 2022 Maribyrnong River flood recovery, they explained how migrant and refugee women are disproportionately impacted in disaster recovery. The team showcased their innovative, community-led approach to building disaster resilience in Metropolitan Melbourne through a gendered and culturally intersectional lens.
Our Community, Our Voice is a Victorian-first, peer-led bicultural model, that ensures migrant communities are at the heart of recovery, addressing housing, financial and mental health needs while building resilience for the future.
Alongside other community organisations, the team showcased how lived experience can and should drive systemic change, and why gendered, intersectional disaster management must shape the way forward.
Our Community, Our Voice will commence a new program in Melton and Wyndham in 2025. Click here to find out more.
