Community Champions project
About
The Queensland Reconstruction Authority invites you to join the Supporting and Upskilling Community Champions Project – an initiative to enhance our community's preparedness and resilience for future flood events in the Brisbane River Catchment area within the Brisbane, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley or Somerset local government areas. This project seeks to engage local residents who play a critical role in sharing flood-related knowledge and building community awareness.
Survey - Get involved and have your say
If you’re interested in participating or would like to learn more, please provide us your contact details via this 2 minute survey. We’d love to have you on board to help build a safer, more informed community.
Thank you for your interest in building our community’s flood resilience.
Community Champion Participation Survey
Project benefits
As you know, flooding is a reality for many in our area, and it brings challenges that affect everyone. We need to come together to build community awareness, strengthen social networks, and improve flood resilience.
This project is a priority action of the Brisbane River Strategic Floodplain Management Plan - to strengthen Community Awareness and Resilience. The project is designed to empower residents—like you—to become informed leaders who can share insights, support neighbours, and guide resilience efforts. We aim to develop a supported self-learning tool that provides critical information that shares the experiences of community members from previous flood events to help upskill other community members, helping us be prepared and connected when it matters most.
Why participate?
We want to speak to local residents who are willing to share their experiences, knowledge, and ideas to help their communities prepare for and respond to flood risks. You don’t need to be an expert—just someone who cares about their community and wants to make a difference.
By participating, you’ll have the chance to contribute to the development of an Interactive Digital Local Knowledge Map that will document flood experiences. This map will serve as a guide for the community, fostering a shared understanding of lived experiences.
Your participation in the project will also contribute to the development of a Local Knowledge Toolkit that will enable other members of the community to prepare their ‘local knowledge toolkit’ specific to their place in the community.
What’s involved?
- Share Your Story: Your local experiences are invaluable! We want to document your story as part of this project to help create a relatable, comprehensive flood awareness tool for the Brisbane River Catchment.
- Workshops: You’ll be invited to attend either online and in-person workshops where you can connect with others, learn about flood resilience, and help shape our community’s response plans.
FAQs
The Supporting and Upskilling Community Champions Project is an initiative by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority aimed at strengthening flood resilience in the Brisbane River Catchment area. This project invites local residents to share their knowledge, experiences, and ideas, empowering them to help increase awareness of flood risks and guide community resilience efforts.
This project is led by Queensland Reconstruction Authority which is the State’s Government lead agency responsible for disaster recovery and resilience in Queensland. This project is a priority action of the Brisbane River Strategic Floodplain Management Plan to strengthen Community Awareness and Resilience.
We aim of the project is to develop a supported self-learning tool that provides critical information that shares the experiences of community members from previous flood events to help upskill other community members, helping us be prepared and connected when it matters most.
Anyone in the community who cares and is active about helping others prepare for and respond to floods can participate. You don’t need to be an expert - just willing to share your story, knowledge, or experiences. By participating, you’ll join other residents who play an active role in supporting our community’s safety and resilience.
You’ll have opportunities to:
- Share your personal flood-related experiences, which will be documented to help create a relatable flood awareness tool.
- Attend workshops, either online or in-person, to connect with others, learn more about flood resilience, and help shape our community’s response plans.
Your insights will contribute to resources like an Interactive Digital Local Knowledge Map and a Local Knowledge Toolkit to better prepare our community for future flood events.
The Interactive Digital Local Knowledge Map is a new tool that will document local flood experiences, offering insights from residents across the Brisbane River Catchment area. This map will serve as a shared resource, fostering a collective understanding of flood risks, helping residents prepare, and guiding flood response efforts based on lived experiences.
These tools are designed to focus on local stories and experiences to build practical flood resilience. Here’s how this project stands out:
- Real Stories and Local Insights – The tools are built around real-life stories and experiences of local residents in the Brisbane River Catchment area. These stories provide relatable insights into how different roles in the community respond to flood events, making the tool grounded in local context and experiences.
- Community Focused: Unlike other flood resilience resources, this tool seeks to promote understanding and support within the community, therefore helping people think about how they can help each other during floods.
- Does Not Duplicate Existing Tools: This tool complements, rather than duplicates, existing resources. It fills a unique role by focusing on different community experiences and leveraging local knowledge to enhance flood preparedness.
Workshops are scheduled for late November or early December and will be offered both online (via Zoom or Teams) and in person to accommodate preferences. The final schedule and details will be shared with participants via the project webpage at:
https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/brisbane-river-catchment/community-champions-project
Simply complete our brief participation survey which will collect some basic information about you and your comfort level with sharing your experiences.
You can also refer to the project webpage at:
https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/brisbane-river-catchment/community-champions-project
Last updated: 21 November 2024.
QRA Reference: MINIGF/31766.