Read the full annual report - Queensland Council of Social Service

Responding to a
summer of disasters
Floods throughout much of Queensland, followed by Cyclone Yasi, made this year
one of the toughest on record for the state’s community service organisations, their
clients and a number of other people who had not previously required support from
service organisations.
At QCOSS we were relatively lucky. Unlike many of our sector colleagues and
thousands of businesses and homes in Queensland, our premises in Brisbane and
Townsville escaped major flood damage. Our staff in Toowoomba, Hervey Bay and
the Sunshine Coast were more severely affected.
Exhausted and muddy, QCOSS staff Tanya Hall,
Jody Tunnicliffe, Jill Lang and John Mikelsons after
clearing valuable archives from the basement of
our Brisbane office.
A mother receives support at the Cyclone Yasi
evacuation centre in Tully.
Photo courtesy Jack Tran, Australian Red Cross.
Once we were fully operational again there was an important role for QCOSS
to play in the recovery. Immediate responses included establishing regional and
government contacts, discussing with the Victorian Council of Social Service what
had worked and what hadn’t during their response to the 2009 Victorian Bushfires,
and producing four special editions of eNews containing information on government
and other support available.
We developed a Flood and Disaster Impact Response Plan to map out our role and
guide us through the first hectic months of activity. Our first step was to research the
impact of the disasters on community sector organisations and people experiencing
poverty and inequality. Our staff visited 15 flood-affected regions and interviewed 36
organisations to gather information so that our advocacy for systemic changes to
disaster planning, relief and recovery reflected the voices of our members, and the
sector generally. Finally there was support to our members and the sector around
disaster management planning and relevant knowledge or skill gaps identified
through our research.
What we learnt through these first few weeks of the year was significant and timecritical.
We developed an urgent supplementary submission to the Queensland
Government’s budget process. This submission pushed for a re-prioritisation of
resources and stressed the importance of long-term recovery plans to address
societal as well as physical recovery needs – plans that would create fairer, more
cohesive and resilient communities.
Based on the Victorian Bushfire Case Management Service model we called
for early intervention workers to support families and households. We called for
community development workers for areas hardest hit. We called for a reduction of
red tape to give community services organisations the flexibility they needed for their
vital contribution to recovery. And we called for ongoing and additional funding to
extend existing financial counselling services and provide additional services for the
expected two years’ duration of the disaster recovery.
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Annual Report 2010-11