What is Community Recovery?
The Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety (DFSDSCS) leads Queensland’s Community Recovery efforts, providing human and social recovery support after disasters such as floods, fires, cyclones, disease outbreaks and other emergencies.
What is the Community Recovery Ready Reserve?
Community Recovery commences after the initial response phase of a disaster or crisis. Known as human and social recovery, the services help disaster-affected people by providing physical health and emotional support, psychological, spiritual, cultural and social wellbeing, public safety and education and administering relevant financial assistance.
The response includes deployment of the Community Recovery Ready Reserve workforce.
The Community Recovery Ready Reserve is a workforce of approved public servants from across Queensland Government departments who register for deployment during disaster recovery efforts. They help individuals and families with:
- Providing disaster-specific information to help communities navigate the recovery process
- Connecting individuals and families with relevant support services, and
- Assisting with applications for financial assistance grants.
Community Recovery workers are only deployed into a disaster area when it is safe to commence the recovery operation.
What is human and social recovery?
Led by Community Recovery, human and social recovery begins after the emergency response phase and focuses on helping people rebuild their lives, restore resilience and community functioning through:
- Physical and emotional wellbeing
- Psychological, spiritual, cultural and social support
- Public safety and education
- Financial assistance (grants).
Disaster events
Community Recovery Ready Reserve staff provide support to communities affected by natural disasters including bushfires, earthquakes, floods, cyclones and severe weather events such as monsoon troughs. For more information to help Queenslanders prepare, respond and recover from disasters, please visit disaster.qld.gov.au.