Natural disaster preparedness focus of new community grants

As climate change dominates the Albanese government’s first federal budget, more grant funding is earmarked for communities affected by natural disasters.

The environment is the focal point of National Australia Bank (NAB) Foundation’s 2022 Community Grants program, with 55 grants of up to $10,000 recently awarded to help local and regional communities prepare for natural disasters, support long-term recovery and build resilience.

The funding comes as Labor’s climate-focused federal budget also increased support for communities affected by natural disasters, which treasurer Jim Chalmers said were occurring with “alarming regularity”.

NAB Group executive of personal banking Rachel Slade said the grants respond to the acute impact of climate change in Australia, as experienced by current major flooding across the south-east coast. 

“Now more than ever, there is a growing need to support communities to rebuild and prepare for the challenges ahead. Not only are many communities in QLD and NSW still recovering from floods earlier this year, but more people are also weathering the storm of the current floods in VIC, TAS and again in NSW,” she said.

“Unfortunately, the devastation caused by natural disasters will continue, and we know that recovery extends well beyond the clean-up. Many of these projects focus on the long-term needs of communities including supporting mental health, building environmental resilience, and preparing for future disasters.”

Four of the 55 recipients were chosen by NAB for an additional $25,000 to scale their projects and create long-term sustainability and impact. This includes the Indigenous Futures Foundation, which will develop a food hub to ensure access to supplies in the event of a disaster and generate community wellbeing programs.

Co-founder Levi-Joel Tamou said the funding would enable the foundation to expand their work to more Indigenous communities across Australia.  

“During the 2022 floods, we donated over 50,000 meals to Indigenous and non-Indigenous families in South-Eastern Queensland and New South Wales, some of whom were completely isolated from food and other essential supplies.”

“The grant means that we can fund a food hub for cooking classes for Indigenous families impacted by floods and support mental health wellbeing and recovery. We will also be able to get more meals for communities on remote Thursday Island.”

Other recipients include The Penguin Foundation, to protect vulnerable penguins against bushfires; The NSW Rural Doctors Network, to deliver cardiac emergency workshops to rural GPs in bushfire and flood affected regions; and the Rural Business Support Service to fund fire ground farm tours and a community mental health and wellbeing forum for local farmers impacted by bushfires.

The NAB Foundation Community Grants program is part of NAB Ready Together, an initiative that helps customers, colleagues and their communities withstand natural disasters.

The second round of the program will see the remaining funding directed to mental health and wellbeing programs, emergency response equipment and wildlife rescue support.