Becoming Resilient and Ready Together

What does your community need to strengthen community connection, capacity and preparedness, for shocks and stresses, including natural hazard emergencies?

About the project

Council is developing a Cessnock Community Resilience Plan. The Plan will:

• Assist our communities to become better connected;
• Improve community preparedness for emergencies, shocks and stresses;
• Help build safer, stronger & connected communities.

We are looking for feedback to identify the most effective strategies/initiatives to increase connection and capacity within our community networks, implement effective risk reduction actions, improve preparedness and build resilient communities.

There are two ways you can share your feedback. We would appreciate you taking the time to complete both.

1. Community Resilience Survey - taking our survey to help us understand your particular concerns and experiences.

2. Interactive Mapping Tool - use this tool to help us identify particular locations and areas of concern.

Please note the mapping tool will require you to enter your email address. For information about how we handle the collection of contact details please see our Privacy Notice.

We’re looking for information about:

• Your Experiences: Share your experiences (including photos) of natural hazards in the region, including areas affected, impacts on people, property and the environment
• Access & Connectivity: Roads/areas that are difficult to travel or reach, or affect evacuation or access to services during disasters, or where phone/internet is poor
• Community Capacity & Strengths: Such as community groups, resilience teams, safe spaces, or local facilities and resources that assist during disasters
• At-Risk Areas: Identify areas that are more at-risk from natural hazards such as places with vulnerable buildings/infrastructure, limited support, or environmental issues such as erosion
• Risk Reduction Actions: Share your ideas/examples of actions that could reduce disaster risk, including any works or actions already happening or possible actions that could help protect people and property
• Important Places or Services: Such as natural areas, cultural landmarks, or essential services like water, power, communication or community meeting places.

Useful definitions:

Community resilience: the ability of communities to survive, adapt to, and recover from challenges, including emergencies associated with natural hazards.

Hazard: anything that has the potential to cause harm to a person

Click here to take you to the map, drop a pin and share your feedback