Ready for relief

By Kath Gannaway
NO ONE could have guessed that the former supermarket in Yarra Glen would be pressed back into service so soon for the community.
With many hundreds of people homeless and displaced by the February bushfires, the empty building that had once been the informal meeting place for many of those same people, proved a God-send.
With donations of food, clothing and other necessities pouring into the town from across the nation, a group of local volunteers managed to cut the red tape and the Yarra Glen Community Fire Relief Centre (YGCFRC) opened its doors on 9 February.
In the first two weeks the centre serviced about 100 people a day with people coming from all the fire-ravaged communities in Yarra Ranges and Murrindindi shires.
Six months on newly appointed co-ordinator Margaret Banks said the need for the centre remained strong. Ms Banks comes from a social work and community-based management background. She says there is no quick fix.
“I think a lot of people will need a lot of support for many months to come,” she said last week.
She said people are facing huge readjustments in their lives as they move on to rebuilding houses and lives.
“A lot of people still need furniture and other household equipment. People have probably dealt with some of their insurance issues by now and are starting to look at their actual relocating, rebuilding and redevelopment so there is still a huge need for support there,” she said.
“The crisis reaction has obviously normalised a little but now there are the ongoing issues of how people actually get their lives back on track after a huge trauma.”
Ms Banks said one of the challenges volunteers and support services faced was recognising the individual differences in ‘where each person is at’ in terms of their recovery.
“I think there is a high level of resilience amongst many people, but you really can’t generalise and put people into boxes.” “That’s where the service system needs to be very sensitive as to how they deal with each person in terms of their own needs.
The YGCFRC epitomises the local and nation-wide community response, which has been recognised as one of the redeeming outcomes of the devastation, tragedy and trauma of the fires.