Highly Commended – Excellence in Disaster Management Category
Melissa Dower, Community Development Manager, Ipswich City Council
The 2020 Springfield and Rosewood Halloween Hailstorm event rendered hundreds of houses uninhabitable and caused over $805 million in damage. The responding emergency managers and operational crews had never seen anything like it.
When the Springfield Lakes YMCA Manager opened the centre doors for breakfast 16+ hours after fridges across the suburb had lost power, Melissa Dower saw an opportunity for community-led recovery.
Working quietly behind the scenes, Melissa worked hand in hand with the YMCA team, linking housing services and insurance companies into the centre; supporting spontaneous local groups to host their own barbeques and fundraisers for impacted families; and organising accommodation for people who had lost everything and overnight had nowhere to live.
Melissa advocated for activation of the Personal Hardship Assistance Scheme and worked with the YMCA management to set up a schedule of meals and activities, ensuring none of the food and vouchers donated by local businesses and charities went to waste, and providing the community some certainty in a very uncertain time.
Community-led recovery is frequently touted as being the 'gold standard' in disaster recovery, but it can be complex to facilitate and deliver. Melissa helped coordinate both the overwhelming need and the support that followed the Halloween Hailstorm, ensuring the YMCA and the community itself were leading this recovery effort.
This recovery process has since been duly commended publicly: in disaster management forums by recovery agencies; by state Members of Parliament; and has been identified as a stand-out case study on community-led recovery.
