Time to Think Out of the Box When It Comes to Community-led Resilience
Tracks
Prince Room
| Tuesday, July 15, 2025 |
| 1:50 PM - 2:10 PM |
Overview
Liz Mackinlay, Australian Business Volunteers
Details
Key Presentation Learnings:
1. How non-traditional funding models can positively contribute to resourcing community-led resilience work;
2. The importance of walking alongside the community to ensure a foundation of trust and understanding, with all stakeholders focused on working towards community priorities.
3. Avenues for emergency services and government bodies to more efficiently consult with community actors and draw from their place-based work
Speaker
Ms Liz Mackinlay
Ceo
Australian Business Volunteers
Time to think out of the box when it comes to community-led resilience
Abstract
Community-led preparedness and prevention has long been understood as an important cornerstone for Australia’s disaster management ecosystem with the Glasser and Colvin reviews both emphasising the urgent pressure for policy and funding to unlock place-based solutions.
On the ground however, the challenges for community groups and local councils remain real when trying to deliver hyper-local solutions to prepare their community and embed national emergency systems when budgets, resources and skills are tight.
Working in partnership with disaster affected communities in Victoria and New South Wales since 2020, Australian Business Volunteers has worked hard to explore alternative community-led funding and resilience models to work smarter not harder to unlock the community’s voice and its much-needed capabilities.
Responsible for delivering over 60 community-led disaster resilience projects in 20 local communities with some 4,400 volunteer hours, ABV has leveraged non-traditional actors to build a framework of deep local trust, widespread capacity building, and importantly, complex network integration with both emergency services and government bodies.
Introducing expert intermediary support with alternative-funding models that draw on business partnerships and their volunteer cohorts, ABV is pleased to share five years of learnings to explore how our sector can work smarter not harder for the solutions our community need.
On the ground however, the challenges for community groups and local councils remain real when trying to deliver hyper-local solutions to prepare their community and embed national emergency systems when budgets, resources and skills are tight.
Working in partnership with disaster affected communities in Victoria and New South Wales since 2020, Australian Business Volunteers has worked hard to explore alternative community-led funding and resilience models to work smarter not harder to unlock the community’s voice and its much-needed capabilities.
Responsible for delivering over 60 community-led disaster resilience projects in 20 local communities with some 4,400 volunteer hours, ABV has leveraged non-traditional actors to build a framework of deep local trust, widespread capacity building, and importantly, complex network integration with both emergency services and government bodies.
Introducing expert intermediary support with alternative-funding models that draw on business partnerships and their volunteer cohorts, ABV is pleased to share five years of learnings to explore how our sector can work smarter not harder for the solutions our community need.
Biography
Liz Mackinlay is a global expert in international preparedness and 21st-century community resilience-building. She brings 30 years’ experience in more than 80 countries in international, indigenous and community development. As CEO at Australian Business Volunteers, Liz is leading an innovative new approach to community-led recovery following the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires in NSW and Victoria. She’s passionate about collaboration and facilitating partnerships between communities and government, non-profit, corporate, academia and emergency services. Above all, she’s driven to elevate and include the voices of our communities and ensure their needs are met as we step into an uncertain future.
