Campbelltown City Council has partnered with local Pacific community leaders to develop and deliver effective strategies for raising awareness among Pacific community members living and working within the Campbelltown Local Government Area (LGA) about how to reduce their risks from natural hazards, including severe storms, floods, bushfires and heatwaves.
A project Reference Group was established containing a cross section of representation of Pacific Island Nations ancestry.
Research was conducted to identify the population density of people with Pacific Islands ancestry within each suburb of the LGA. This data was then overlaid with maps highlighting areas prone to bushfire, flood and heatwaves, providing Council, Pacific leaders and community members with vital information about natural hazard risks affecting their communities.
Flyers and posters were created in collaboration with the Reference Group to raise awareness, and promote the usage of the Council’s Emergency Help Hub, ensuring they were culturally accessible for the community. The flyers were translated into the four main Pacific languages spoken in the LGA - Samoan, Fijian, Māori and Tongan (Census 2021) - and were distributed throughout the community, libraries and at Resilient Campbelltown community workshops. You can download these flyers below.
The Emergency Services including NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS), NSW State Emergency Service (SES), NSW Health and Australian Red Cross (Red Cross) were engaged to deliver community preparedness workshops for the Pacific communities on preparing and responding to bushfires, floods, severe storms, heatwaves and general emergency planning. Fire & Rescue NSW also gave a presentation on home fire safety at the community’s request.
Workshops included live demonstrations and one-on-one assistance for participants on using Campbelltown City Council’s Emergency Help Hub. Attendees learned how to save a link to the Hub to their phone’s home screen, download and use the Hazards Near Me NSW app, create a Watch Zone, and download and use the Emergency Plus app.
The community workshops were collaboratively designed by Council, the Reference Group and the Emergency Services to ensure they were accessible, relevant and would attract maximum registration of participants.
Four emergency preparedness workshops were delivered. One for the Samoan Seniors Group, one for several Fijian church communities, one for the whole Pacific Diaspora organised by the NSW Council for the Pacific Communities, and one for a Tongan church community.
Each workshop participant received a free emergency pack including a waterproof document wallet and flyers from all the emergency services, plus a Meals on Wheels ACT! Program Toolkit.
Three social media videos are being developed in collaboration with the Reference Group and Council to educate Pacific communities on natural hazard risk reduction. These videos will be provided to community and church groups to share on their social platforms, creating ongoing awareness and education.
Council will partner with the First Nations and Indian Subcontinent communities to design and deliver similar community workshops and Emergency Help Hub flyers.
The Pacific Community aspect of this project was funded by a grant from NSW Reconstruction Authority’s Disaster Risk Reduction Fund.
