Community Development Program

Program purpose

To assist the region to recover after the Queensland Bushfires in 2019, a Community Recovery Package was made available and funded by the Commonwealth and State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements under Category C. The package included a Community Development Program. Funding was available to establish Community Development Officers (CDOs) to work across the impacted LGAs to understand recovery needs and develop community-led recovery and resilience plans.

Program status

The program concluded in June 2022.

Administering agency

The Department of Communities led the implementation of the program with administrative support from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA).

Outcomes achieved:

Community Development Officers (CDOs) were employed over a 24-month period through to June 2022. Outcomes achieved include:

• 6,839 hours developing and delivering events
• 1,014 hours developing resources and tools
• 873 hours on training and learning
• 2,816 hours in supporting flexible funding grant (FFG) activities
• 1,063 hours developing recovery and resilience (RR) plans.

CDOs recorded participation in the community development activities as:

• 35,444 participants in events
• 3,955 participants in training activities
• 2,816 participants in FFG activities
• 7,315 participants in developing RR plans.

CDOs also recorded participation from other community agencies in their community development activities as:

• 3,955 community agencies participating in events.

More information

A copy of the full evaluation report is available on the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) website.

(QRA Reference CM DOC/22/73863)