Resilience NSW and Service NSW have joined forces to support bushfire-affected communities through Operation Outreach, a program aimed at ensuring everyone who needs support gets it.
Deputy Premier and Minister responsible for Disaster Recovery, John Barilaro announced $8.5 million to fund the Operation, made up of Resilience NSW, Service NSW, local Councils, charities and locally embedded recovery services.
Mr Barilaro said the Operation would proactively seek out bushfire-impacted families and individuals to ensure they were utilising the raft of support available.
“This is above and beyond the ongoing engagement already underway,” Mr Barilaro said.
“The thing that keeps me up at night is that someone might fall through the cracks when it comes to bushfire recovery and the Operation Outreach program will directly address this concern,” he said.
“Operation Outreach will be undertaken in two stages – the first step will see dedicated support officers ensure contact has been made with every single person who has been impacted by bushfires and actively seek out anyone who has not made contact.”
Mr Barilaro said the second stage would see those in need referred to dedicated local recovery support services.
He said the localised support model took key learnings from previous disaster events, including the 2013 Blue Mountains Bushfires, 2017 Sir Ivan Fire and 2018 Tathra fire.
“We know that people who have experienced trauma seek help according to their own timeline and this program ensures nobody misses out,” Mr Barilaro said.
