The changes helping QRIDA give its best for the next disaster
28 October 2024
Opinion piece from QRIDA Disasters and Drought Manager, Sheree Finney
Over the past few weeks, you’ve likely seen important messages from organisations including QRIDA urging you and your community to get ready for extreme weather events this disaster season.
Behind the scenes, the QRIDA team has also been preparing for the 2024/25 disaster season to ensure we are ready to effectively and efficiently help Queenslanders clean-up and recover following future disasters.
We recently completed a review of our administration of financial assistance for the 2023/24 disaster season, which many would remember began with significant bushfires before further challenging Queenslanders with severe storms and cyclones during the festive season and into the new year.
The review undertaken with feedback from industry allies and government partners highlighted QRIDA’s strengths in client engagement and communications during this challenging and stressful time.
Our Client Services team professionally and empathetically managed a high volume of enquiries, while our Regional Area Managers were on the ground in disaster-impacted communities to provide information about the financial assistance available to those impacted, help complete applications and answer questions.
By capturing lessons learnt from the previous disaster season, we’ve also been able to identify opportunities where we can bolster our recovery and resilience efforts for future disasters.
We know timely and effective communication is vital to fast-track the clean-up and recovery process, which is why we’re making improvements to our website to ensure information about future disaster financial assistance is even clearer and more accessible.
We’re also equipping the QRIDA team with the best available disaster knowledge and training from effectively communicating with people in distress to understanding the unique needs of different communities across Queensland.
These improvements to our disaster framework build on QRIDA’s experience of over 30 years delivering financial assistance to primary producers, small businesses and non-profit organisations following some of Queensland’s most severe weather events.
While we can’t predict what the 2024/25 disaster season will hold, we are taking the time now to strengthen our capabilities and innovate new solutions so that we can provide the highest quality of financial assistance services possible to help communities clean-up and recover following the next disaster.
To find out more about QRIDA’s disaster financial assistance services, visit the disaster webpage.
