Bellingen Shire receives recognition for Community Response
Published on 10 October 2022
Our Shire’s Pandemic Response Group (PRG) has won the 2022 NSW Resilient Australia Local Government Award which recognises resilience-building initiatives and celebrates community spirit, collaboration, and innovative thinking.
The Bellingen Shire Pandemic Response Group is made up of representatives from Council, General Practice, hospitals, pharmacists, Chambers of Commerce, and community service providers who worked together with our community to deliver initiatives, actions and information to provide a local response to the global crisis.
With a focus on key community areas of clinical support, community preparedness and resilience, community information, business support services and the maintenance of Council’s essential community services, the PRG operates as an umbrella group to effectively disseminate information, plan and coordinate initiatives and work with key agencies and organisations in the region.
The award recognised the work of the PRG, with an emphasis on its work through the Delta wave of the pandemic (June 2021 – Jan 2022) including the successful Be Kind campaign. During the pandemic the PRG met weekly coordinating messaging, facilitating programs, and supporting localised initiatives including:
- Provision of up to date COVID19 information including the operating hours of the testing clinic, and interpretation and sharing of latest statistics through the Neighbourhood Care Network (NCN)
- Coordination and advocacy with the Local Emergency Management Committee, Resilience NSW and Local health District
- Group support and understanding of the Vaccine roll out
- Community sentiment relating to vaccinations
- Impact of staff and customer vaccination mandates and operating restrictions on businesses and government support
- Be Kind messaging, poster campaign, and the Be Kind Bellingen Shire film development
- Planning to provide local support for COVID-19 management in the community.
Local residents and members of the PRG, Kerry Pearse and Dr Trevor Cheney along with Council’s Community Resilience Coordinator, Clare Danby received the award last Thursday 6 October at the awards ceremony held at Parliament House in Sydney.
The award was announced by Resilience NSW Commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons and presented by The Hon. Stephanie Cooke, the Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience, and Minister for Flood Recovery.
“This great achievement will place our Pandemic Response Group in the running for the 2022 Resilient Australia Local Government Award for national recognition, to be announced in November.” Said Mayor Cr, Steve Allan.
“This award is a true testament to our community action, and collective commitment to ensure as a community we are prepared, informed and supported to respond to the challenges we face.”
Through the coordinated efforts of the PRG a variety of organisations were providing services to support our community throughout the pandemic including the Neighbourhood Care Network (NCN), who issued an SMS service to 1300+ people providing up to date and synthesised data on COVID19 which provided access to key parts of our community who do not have email. Also, the Chambers of Commerce facilitated online members meetings to talk about the challenges of restrictions on businesses and available grant support.
The Be Kind Bellingen Shire campaign was designed and distributed to businesses throughout the Shire, which supported front line workers and promoted positive messaging at a time when front line staff were vulnerable. The Be Kind Bellingen Shire film, created by Gethin Coles, was well received by the community providing a light-hearted view of Bellingen Shire during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was viewed 1000s of times through social media – and can still be viewed on Council’s You Tube channel - The Bellingen Shire, Being Kind Is What We Do Best.
Our learning from this experience has led to our community’s ability to efficiently stand up community flood recovery committees. We continue to work and adapt the PRG/recovery committee model into an on-going preparedness and recovery Community Resilience Committee that can continue to stand up as a PRG/flood/fire recovery committee when needed.