Getting the conditions right: building community capacity to support children and young people in regional communities in New South Wales and Victoria

Over recent years, many regional and rural communities across Australia have experienced devastating drought, catastrophic bushfires, pandemic, mouse plague and multiple major flood events. A growing body of research has explored children and young people’s lived experience of disasters and has highlighted the centrality of local community efforts in recovery. However, recent disaster events have demonstrated an enduring need to build local community capacity to support children and young people’s recovery. Between 2021 and 2024, Community Resilience Officers (CROs) were deployed to build capacity in northern, southern and central areas of New South Wales and East Gippsland in Victoria. A developmental evaluation captured the practices associated with Community Capacity Building-Disaster Recovery (CCB-DR) and identified conditions that constrained and enabled these practices in different community contexts. This paper analyses this evaluation data through a socio-ecological lens and identifies 5 policy-relevant recommendations to improve practice. These are flexible funding for right time, right place intervention; involving children and young people in dialogue and decision-making; workforce capacity development; resourcing project leadership; and participatory research and evaluation to inform recovery capacity building interventions.