Community Disaster Resilience Plan

In 2025, Mornington Peninsula Shire developed its first Community Disaster Resilience Plan. The plan aims to identify ways to reduce disaster risks, strengthen social and environmental protective factors, and empower communities and individuals to actively contribute to local resilience. Capire was appointed to deliver a comprehensive community engagement strategy to inform the plan.

Approach
Capire set out to understand current levels of community preparedness and resilience, to identify gaps that can be supported by the Shire (particularly in relation to priority communities), to build organisational buy-in and community understanding, and to explore opportunities to work with external partners.

We designed a range of engagement tools to capture diverse community views that were primarily delivered by Shire staff. This included:

• a scorecard to measure community resilience (available both online and in physical form)
• an online survey to capture feedback and ideas
• a conversation toolkit to support the project team and partners
• six pop-up events at locations across the Shire
• six workshops with community organisations and advisory groups.

Outcomes
The engagement captured feedback from more than 500 participants, including people from various age groups and diverse cultural backgrounds. Capire analysed the data and presented the findings, grouped by themes, in a detailed Engagement Report.

Mornington Peninsula Shire have used the engagement findings to develop a practical plan that responds to local strengths, needs and priorities when it comes to preparing for and responding to disasters. The plan was adopted by Council in December 2025.