A new disaster response initiative has been launched to reshape disaster recovery in Australia by prioritising community engagement, addressing housing challenges, and creating tools to support long-term recovery efforts.
Funded by the Judith Neilson Chair in Architecture endowment at UNSW, HowWeSurvive has compiled survival stories from across Australia through research, advocacy, and collaboration, aiming to activate local communities’ participation with disaster recovery and resilience efforts.
One particular focus of the initiative is housing recovery after a disaster. Many communities impacted by disasters face challenges with temporary shelters, high costs, and lengthy timelines for rebuilding.
“HowWeSurvive champions best practices for community-centred recovery, which is about learning from the people directly affected by disasters,” Prof. Sanderson said.
A major function of the platform is to give voice to those community members ignored after disasters, enabling them to express their needs and develop knowledge and tools to reform the sector from the ground up.
The website features a series of podcasts and videos exploring historical disasters and providing post-disaster instructions for various victims.
“If you talk with communities, many are willing to play a central role in their own recovery efforts after disasters,” Prof. Sanderson said. “But disaster recovery is still dominated by top-down command-and-control philosophies where people’s needs are simply disregarded.”
One challenge is the authorities might not have enough time to engage with communities over the long term. Local councils and non-government organisations may also be under-resourced and operate with different methods, making genuine coordination for community-centred recovery difficult.
The initiative aims to address this issue, prompting the government to offer more appropriate assistance based on a community-centred approach.
“We’ll also be examining where we can better centre community in disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness efforts,” Prof. Sanderson says.
