By Anne Coffey

Funded through the Department of Communities and Justice the Recovery & Resilience Project is designed to embed social cohesion and support community-led social recovery following the devastating floods that impacted the Condobolin community in the latter part of 2022. The Program allowed LWRS to provide critical human services to vulnerable individuals and families that reside in our disaster affected community. Such support included:

• Case management through the provision of targeted support to client or client groups including through health care, personal care, accidental counselling, and pastoral care.
• Child/youth activities designed to provide support to flood impacted children and youth – e.g., activity programs, fun days, etc.
• Community activities designed to provide support to flood impacted community members – e.g., community get togethers, family fun days such as Carp Comps, Easter Egg Hunt and cultural programs.
• Disaster preparedness activities/training to plan to better prepare the community for future disasters.
• Distribution of food, personal care items, school supplies and/or donated goods.
• Service delivery through the provision of brokerage to flood impacted people.
• Transport/delivery associated with delivery of services or goods under the grant.

With quarterly reporting to the funding body, and bi-monthly in-person meetings, it has proven quite time consuming but has proved to be a successful project with over 6000 individual and community support activities provided.
Courtney presented as the guest speaker at the Disaster Recovery Forum hosted in mid-March 2024. Such was attended by a variety of state and federal government representatives and not for profit organisations.
Due to Courtney’s support and initiative LWRS received substantial recognition from the Department for our contribution to the community, and the success of our project. So much so, the Commissioning and Planning Officer from DCJ selected LWRS, alongside the Royal Flying Doctor Service, as the two most outstanding Flood Recovery Grant Service Providers in Western NSW – an enormous feat.
The same Commissioning and Planning Officer contacted the powers-that-be in DJC outlining the services provided and the projects we delivered through LWRS and asked about the potential for ongoing funding through DCJ.

These included.
Community Dinner with Rugby League, Community Pantry with Foodbank, Distribution of Good 360 Clothes and personal items, Birth Certificates, identification documents and will preparation, Careers Expo with Verto and Sureway, Breakfast Programs, Lunch assistance for School students, Visiting Counsellors and Legal Aid Representatives, Food for animals, Carp Fishing Comps, Housing support, Youth Activities and Discos, Cooking classes, art classes, painting/art classes, Games and sporting fun, Drones and Technology Workshops, Mums and Bubs (Kindorama), Movies, Centrelink Agency, Bendigo Bank Agency, Elderly Support (for isolated) and Work Development Orders to assist people with fines.