By Callum Ludwig
With storms and floods devastating the Yarra Ranges in recent years, a funding boost for Outer Eastern Foodshare (OEF) to improve community resilience is welcome news.
Funding from the Federal Government’s $10 million Preparing Australian Communities (PAC) Grant is set to help in preparing for, reducing the impact of and aiding the recovery from natural disasters and hazards as a result of climate change.
OEF President John Csorgo said the funding will help the wider emergency relief network in the Yarra Ranges to have a stronger structure in place and implement a number of the ideas which they’ve come up with.
“The Yarra Ranges Emergency Relief Network (YRERN) has been a collective of people and organisations, there was no structure to employ anyone or use those resources so outer Eastern Foodshare was filling the Project Coordinator role,” he said.
“Now there will be a designated Project Coordinator working for YRERN to help determine things like where demand is coming from, how do we collate all that demand, how we share resources, but also to get together and share ideas and formalise the structure.”
OEF, YRERN and Yarra Ranges Council will be working together going forward to help provide essential care, support and services such as supplying essential household items, offering emotional and financial counselling and providing health care and social connection.
Mr Csorgo said this support is important now and will continue to be in future.
“It’s critical because there is just going to be more and more from what all the data and reports we’ve seen, so the ability to get on top of things before they just escalate is important, to move from being very reactive to proactive,” he said.
“That way we can address people’s needs before they come into dire situations, I can give you many stories of people from homelessness to food insecurity to mental health issues. The local network is very strong, but the level of delivering services does vary from small organisations to large ones so to be able to coordinate and assist each other will be really helpful.”
The PAC grant is also assisting a number of other projects across the region as well that are set to make communities more resilient. Place-based planning for Healesville, Yarra Junction and Monbulk, a microgrid for Monbulk, resilient buildings, tree management, improved accessible facilities at the Kilsyth Sports Centre suitable for its use as a designated emergency relief centre and a bushfire risk assessment in 2021 storm-affected areas of the Dandenong Ranges are all the beneficiaries of funding provided.
Yarra Ranges Council Mayor Jim Child said we all know how important it is for communities to work together when faced with adversity.
“This grant is a great step to continue building resilience in the Yarra Ranges, OEF does an excellent job of collecting and distributing food to agencies across the Yarra Ranges – in fact they do such a good job that this can be as much as 100 tonnes of food each year,” he said.
“As an incorporated organisation and part of the YRERN, OEF offers vast experience and provide a wide range of services including food relief, financial support, accommodation assistance, counselling. We’re pleased they are able to continue their great work in building resilience in the Yarra Ranges.”
