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Department of Agriculture

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  1. Home
  2. Agriculture and land
  3. Farming, food and rural support
  4. Drought, disaster and rural support
  5. Future Drought Fund
  6. Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative

Sidebar first - Farming

  • Future Drought Fund
    • Case studies
    • Climate Services for Agriculture
    • Drought Resilience Commercialisation Initiative
    • Drought Resilience Research and Adoption program
      • Drought Resilience Research and Adoption Program webinar
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          • Drought Resilience Innovation Grants
          • Science to Practice Forum
    • Drought Resilience Research and Adoption National Enabling Activities
    • Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool
    • Farm Business Resilience Program
    • Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative
    • Monitoring, evaluation and learning
    • Natural Resource Management Drought Resilience Program – Grants
    • Natural Resource Management Drought Resilience Program — Landscapes
    • Regional Drought Resilience Planning

Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative

Strong networks and local leadership play an important role in building the drought resilience of agriculture-dependent communities.

That’s why the Future Drought Fund is investing in the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative (the Initiative).

It is delivered in partnership with the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) and the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF).

The Initiative has 5 elements and builds on the work of the Networks to Build Drought Resilience and Drought Resilience Leaders programs.

Elements

Community Impact Program

This program builds community networks in regions with greater drought risk and has 2 components:

  • Community Impact Grants, grants of up to $500,000 for co-designed regional projects delivered by FRRR
  • Community Leadership Activities delivered by ARLF.

Small Network Grants

Grants of up to $20,000 for events or initiatives to strengthen community networks and capabilities that build drought preparedness. Applications will open in early 2024. The grants will be delivered by FRRR.

Mentoring Program

This program connects mentors with mentees for 12 months to share knowledge and help build their community’s drought resilience. It is delivered by ARLF.

National Expertise Pool

An online platform gives the Initiative’s grant recipients access to skilled, community-focussed specialists to help implement their projects.

The platform is managed by FRRR.

Consultants and organisations able to offer relevant services can submit an EOI to join the National Expertise Pool.

National Learning Network

The Drought Ready Network will connect individuals and organisations from across the Initiative to learn from one another. It will launch in 2023 and be delivered by ARLF.

Program evaluation

Nous Group has been contracted to work collaboratively with delivery partners over the duration of the Initiative. This dedicated investment in understanding and measuring social resilience will support evaluation of the Initiative’s long-term impact.

Previous programs

Networks to Build Drought Resilience

  • 87 community groups completed projects creating or strengthening local networks
  • 791 activities reached 37,841 regional Australians.

Read the final report.

Drought Resilience Leaders

  • 618 regional Australians from 474 towns strengthened their community resilience to drought by participating in the Drought Leadership Development courses, Community Extension Grants, and the Drought Resilience Leaders Mentoring Program.

See the impact on participants from Western Australia’s Northern Wheatbelt.

0:01 [Music]

0:11 I came to Mullewa as a graduate school teacher and when

0:14 you're new to Town the best way to get

0:17 to know people is to get involved

0:20 there comes a point particularly in a

0:22 small community where if you've got some

0:25 skills that are useful people start

0:28 turning to you to ask for help and

0:30 that's when you really start to think

0:31 about leadership

0:34 support the drought resilience

0:35 leadership program gave to me was a

0:38 really clear picture of how expansive my

0:42 role could be in this community

0:43 [Music]

0:45 climate change and increasing

0:47 temperatures are going to have an impact

0:49 on the frequency and the severity of

0:52 drought if we have really strong social

0:55 Connections in the community

0:57 then I think we can weather most storms

1:00 I think my impacts only just beginning

1:03 building that social cohesion and

1:05 building that vision of who we want to

1:07 be and working towards it it's like

1:09 putting something in reserve for when

1:10 things get tough and and that's what

1:12 I'll be able to contribute to over the

1:15 next couple of years rural Australia is

1:18 super important to achieving climate

1:20 change action this is where the wind

1:21 farms and the solar farms and the green

1:23 hydrogens all going to happen out here

1:25 so I want people to really appreciate

1:27 the value in investing in us I think the

1:31 journey is just beginning

1:33 foreign

1:41 my father was born in Morrow and my

1:43 grandparents came out to morwell from

1:45 Scotland very early in the 1900s

1:47 I lived through the droughts when I was

1:49 a young when I was a young child and I

1:50 watched my parents go through it and

1:52 struggle through it

1:54 the challenges around drought not only

1:56 affects the farmers and their income the

1:58 ongoing challenge with Community is then

2:01 there's not as much employment going on

2:02 there's not as much money circulating

2:04 within the community repercussions of

2:06 that are massive like dropping a rock in

2:09 in a pond the Ripple goes out and out

2:11 and out and affects more than just the

2:12 farmers

2:13 I've always believed in good

2:15 leadership's always going to make good

2:17 communities good teams the drought

2:20 resilience leadership course actually

2:21showed me that there's lots of different

2:23 ways to lead and you've got to be open

2:25 to change to make good leaders there's a

2:28 lot of people in these small country

2:29 towns that I don't think are being

2:30 recognized that they're really

2:31 struggling through life so the programs

2:34 and the work I'll do moving forward will

2:35 be developing programs to stop people

2:38 being in struggle Street and getting up

2:40 on their feet

2:46 part of being resilient is being able to

2:48 recognize that that change needs to

2:50 happen quickly and not wait because if

2:53 you wait you may miss the moment

2:54 [Music]

Read the snapshot report.

Funding information

Find details of the payment information for the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative as required under section 27A of the Future Drought Fund Act 2019 below.

Download

Future Drought Fund: Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought (PDF 237 KB)
Future Drought Fund: Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought (DOCX 115 KB)

If you have difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.

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Last updated: 08 August 2023

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We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.