00:00We're going to talk about a first initiative in regards to spontaneous volunteering and pulling community people together to help community, which was a recommendation from Flood Inquiry in 2022.
00:14I'd like to hand over to Holly from the Midcoast Community Flood Recovery Group to talk about how we're integrating the community into our operations to make sure that we get through this process as quickly as possible and we get back on the street as quickly as possible.
00:37Hi, my name is Holly Rankin. I'm a local from Foster, Warramai country. I've come together with a group of amazing women to form Midcoast Community Flood Response.
00:52We are a community group that are today partnering with the FCS to bring in, organise and mobilise community around the official efforts from the FCS and other folks on the ground.
01:06So we're a group of over 600 volunteers and growing. We are calling out to individuals, community groups all around the area and eventually around the state to come in and mobilise around the efforts happening on the ground on official folks and services like the amazing community at the FCS.
01:28This is one of the first times this has happened where we're able to mobilise and work in conjunction with the FCS. So we'll be operating here at the volunteer headquarters.
01:37There'll be a daily briefing at 10am for volunteers to come and be inducted and work alongside the FCS.
01:46It's not the community's responsibility to lead these efforts, we're working in behind the official efforts, but we're doing everything we can to mobilise our community in an organised way that is safe, responsible and means we can respond at scale alongside the FCS.
02:04So if anyone would like to volunteer, if you're a local, you'd like to volunteer, if you're a community group, if you're anyone who would like to offer help, please head to communitybloodresponse.com.
02:14You can sign up to volunteer and you'll be part of this amazing effort alongside the FCS and the incredible leaders on ground who are doing their absolute best to respond to what is an extremely critical national crisis here in Taree and Surround.
02:30So we need all the help you can get, but we are forming a people cloud response to work alongside the FCS and other authorities.
