Blue Mountains Gazette, November 2021
Blue Mountains business owners, managers and employees are being invited to participate in a survey to better understand the current structures of local business community groups and networks from a perspective of disaster preparedness, resilience and shared values. Leading international resilience expert Professor Daniel Aldrich, from Northeastern University in Boston, USA, and Katoomba-based Associate Professor Valerie Ingham, who lectures in emergency management at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, are driving the survey with corporate2community Director Renae Hanvin.
The survey is funded under the Bushfire Community Recovery and Resilience Fund (BCRRF) project through the joint Commonwealth/State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements – focused on building resilience across the local business community. “We know that connections are crucial in getting communities through major shocks such as bushfires, and disruptive events like Covid-19,” Professor Aldrich said. “Through my own research I’ve found communities that are tightly connected fare much better during a major disaster than communities where people don’t even know each other.”
