Community Recovery & Resilience

Resilient Lismore Inc. is a registered charity and a grassroots, community based organisation that is dedicated to fostering disaster preparedness, recovery, and resilience in Lismore and the Northern Rivers.

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Join the Resilient Lismore Community Advisory Group (CAG)

 

Resilient Lismore is seeking passionate community members to join our Community Advisory Group (CAG). The CAG plays a vital role in advising our organisation by providing advice on community needs, our disaster recovery efforts, and our approach to strengthening community resilience.

As a member, you’ll contribute valuable insights, engage in strategic discussions, and help shape initiatives that support our community. Meetings are held twice a year, and members receive a volunteer expense reimbursement.

We welcome diverse voices, including residents with lived experience of the 2022 disaster, Aboriginal and CALD community members, business owners, young people, and those with expertise in disaster recovery, community development, and resilience-building.

Ready to make a difference? Apply now!

📜 View the full Terms of Reference Click Here

🔗 Submit your Expression of Interest Click Here   (Expressions of Interest close on Wednesday April 17th)

Mission

To build connected and thriving communities, that are well-equipped to handle and recover from emergencies and climate disasters.
We strive to deliver and support community-led initiatives, helping local communities improve their capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of climate change.

Mission

To build connected and thriving communities, that are well-equipped to handle and recover from emergencies and climate disasters.
We strive to deliver and support community-led initiatives, helping local communities improve their capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of climate change.

Purpose

To lead community-based disaster preparedness, recovery & resilience in the Northern Rivers.

Vision

Prepared
& Thriving Communities.

What we do

Resilient Lismore coordinates local and visiting volunteers, and local tradespeople to help repair disaster damaged homes;

 supports people to navigate a complex recovery landscape and provides referrals for people to appropriate recovery services.

We also coordinate and engage in community resilience networks to improve community level preparedness; advocate to government; and inform disaster resilience and recovery planning processes at all levels of government.

Values we believe in

Community Connection

We are deeply embedded in community, ensuring our actions reflect community voices and advocate for their needs and interests. 

Equity & Inclusion

We are open to everyone, creating welcoming environments, and showing respect to all.

Collaboration & Trust

We work closely with others, fostering strong, trust-based relationships and networks

Care & Compassion

Kindness and compassion are at the heart of our approach, guiding us to work with care for others and for ourselves.

Our Organisations objectives:

1

To Support

community-led disaster preparedness, recovery and resilience;

2

To Help

Lismore and surrounding communities develop their capacity to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from crises and disasters;

3

To Build

community resilience to prevent the impact of poverty, disadvantage and suffering that results from natural disasters;

4

To Mitigate

the impacts of poverty, disadvantage and suffering that results from natural disasters through the mobilisation of spontaneous offers of help (volunteers, financial, material) in the recovery effort;

5

To do

all things that the association determines necessary to advance and achieve its objectives.

Where We Work

Resilient Lismore works across the seven LGAs of the Northern Rivers

We are based in Lismore, working out of our Hub in the Lismore CBD. We deliver repair work right across the Northern Rivers, from the Tweed to the Clarence and we collaborate with communities across the region.

map showing 7 council areas in the northern rivers

Our team live locally. We are part of this community and we love the Northern Rivers.
We want to see our community thrive, and that’s why we do what we do!

Our Team

Elly Bird

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Kathrin de Silva

Director operations

Jonathan Smith

Repair to return manager

Robyn Kelly

logistics and volunteers manager

Nick Earnshaw

it and systems manager

Emma Newman

EVENTS COORDINATOR

Maddy Braddon

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Celine Massa

INTAKE AND REFERRAL Coordinator

Lindell Eldred

INTAKE AND REFERRAL OFFICER

Caroline Tandler

Administration Support Officer

Felipe Olaondo Nogueira

Project Officer – Rebuild team

Tony Lee

Project Officer – Rebuild team

Peter Lloyd

Project Officer – Repair to Return

Jenny Bird

Project Coordinator – COMMUNITY SERVICES Evacuation Project

Aliison Kelly

Project Officer – COMMUNITY SERVICES Evacuation Project

Maya

Welcoming Committee – hub

Become a Volunteer

3 Resilient Lismore Female Volunteers

Volunteers are the backbone of our disaster recovery work, without their donation of time and skills, we could not keep doing the important work we do. We would love to hear from you if you are interested in what we do! We also work with 88 day visa volunteers and welcome you to come and work in our community 

Job Vacancies

Warehouse Officer / Handy-Person – Lismore

Position summary The Warehouse Officer/Handy-person will be responsible for managing Resilient Lismore’s warehouse and storage

Our Board Members​

Anne Meagher

Chairperson

Ross Davies

TREASURER

Fiona Allison

SECRETARY

Fiona Berry

Board MEMBER

Naomi Shine

BOARD MEMBER

Our History

Our team first sprung into action as a community group called ‘Lismore Helping Hands’ following the first major flood in 2017.

We operated a community hub out of the disused train station for three weeks, coordinating around 1500 volunteers and responding to around 1000 jobs. In 2019-20 we supported communities around Nimbin who were responding to bushfires; we continued to manage our Facebook group, focusing on preparedness; we developed some resilience resources through Covid; and we changed our name to Resilient Lismore.

Two women holding volunteer signs and first aid boxes
Lismore Helping Hands operating from Lismore train station in 2017

After the 2022 Flood

In response to the disaster that impacted the whole of the Northern Rivers in February 2022 our community came together again.

For eight months Resilient Lismore operated out of an undercover car park in the CBD, from there we collaborated with numerous other community initiatives across the Northern Rivers, all working as fast as we could to support the people who needed us. In October that year we moved into our Hub in the CBD and from there we continued supporting the people who needed us.

Repair to Return​

With widespread damage to housing in the Northern Rivers, and thousands of people displaced,

we focused early on repairing homes so they would be safe and secure to live in for the people who needed them. We partnered with Reece Foundation in early 2023 to deliver the ‘Essential Plumbing’ project and we secured funding from the Lismore Catholic Diocese to develop the ‘Two Rooms’ project. As these initiatives developed we also partnered with the Winsome Soup Kitchen who funded a large number of repairs. We then successfully lobbied the NSW Government for $5 million for our ‘Repair to Return’ project.

The Hub

Our projects & services run out of our community hub in the Lismore CBD.

Where we also continue to support our community with access to donated goods, warm referrals to other community services and the delivery of community events and workshops.

Our Donors & Partners​

We couldn’t do what we do without all our amazing partners, supporters and funders.

Thank you for helping us to help our community.

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We Acknowledge

That we are living and working together to recover from this climate disaster on Bundjalung Country, and pay our deepest respects to Elders past and present.