The Resilience Canopy

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The Resilience Canopy

Building strong and challenge-ready communities nation-wide. A not for profit.

The Resilience Canopy seeks to transform Australia’s response to social and climate challenges, with communities at the helm. Our nationwide program provides communities with the skills and frameworks they need to lead their own journey and helps connects communities with a network of partners who bring community actions to life through investment, expertise or in-kind support.

07/08/2026

Calling all Victorian community members. Our Practitioner Training is returning to Narrm/Melbourne later this month, giving you a unique opportunity to build skills, strengthen connections, and activate for impact!

More than 350 people have completed our training and are now putting community-led action at the centre of resilience. With their community groups, they’re rethinking how they prepare, connect, and take charge of their own futures.

Check out these Victorian community stories to discover how nearby communities have used this training as a springboard to create positive, meaningful change:
🙋‍♂️ Meet Canopy Practitioner Peter from Marong VIC - https://www.resiliencecanopy.com.au/case-studies/peter-marong-practitioner-profile
💥 Growth in Millgrove VIC: a case study - https://www.resiliencecanopy.com.au/case-studies/growth-in-millgrove
📺 ‘What will you learn during training’ short video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pga8WrEp098

Now it’s your chance to be part of this ripple effect and help your community grow stronger. As a Resilience Canopy Practitioner, you’ll be given a proven framework and access to essential tools, resources, Activation Grants, partners and networks to bring your community actions to life.

This training is limited to 30 people and places are filling fast - but we do still have some fully sponsored places available(!) - so make sure you register your interest today: https://www.resiliencecanopy.com.au/training/register

04/08/2026

🙏 From everyone at the Canopy, a big thank you to all those who made it to our panel discussion event in-person or online last Thursday! And no worries if you missed it – we have a link to the full replay below.

Featuring a powerhouse line-up (from left to right in photo) - our moderator Natalie Staaks, Natalie Egleton (FRRR), Kate Cotter (Resilient Building Council), Mary-Lou Lewis (Spadco), Maureen Halit (Millgrove Residents Action Group), and Nicola Stokes (AMP Foundation) - the rich discussion reflected on how community resilience is built through people, trust and local leadership, not just physical infrastructure, and that institutions need to catch up with what communities already know.

The panellists posited that there is already overwhelming evidence that communities know what they need, and that community-led resilience works. The challenge lies in changing systems, funding models, and institutional behaviour to support and enable communities at scale...

👁️ Watch the full replay here: https://www.youtube.com/live/TTGNLcoWoRY

29/07/2026

🎉 We'll be live in less than 24 hours! 🎉

On our panel, sitting alongside the three expert CEOs we’ve introduced already, are two special Canopy Community guests:

Mary-Lou Lewis - Chair of Spadco (Stuarts Point and District Community Organisation), a backbone of connection and advocacy in Stuarts Point, NSW. SPaDCO is supporting the community to come together, understand their challenges - which include fire, flood, and housing affordability - and develop a Resilience Plan.

Maureen Halit - has spent more than five decades serving her community, including 20 years leading the Millgrove Residents Action Group (MRAG). During this time, she has overseen Millgrove’s Community Plan, Resilience Plan, and Future Vision Plan, and built strong connections to improve the town. For her efforts, Maureen was awarded the 2025 Yarra Ranges Citizen of the Year.

As part of our social infrastructure topic, Mary-Lou and Maureen will provide real-world examples of how their communities are connecting and thriving.
Discover more about the discussion topic, and get to know all five of our esteemed panellists here: https://www.resiliencecanopy.com.au/canopy-blog/post?post_id=recfiNW3llGpeDYtK

With Southside Resilience Collective, Better Prepared - Aireys to Eastern View Community, and other communities in attendance, we’re expecting this event to be a great thought leadership discussion and networking opportunity.

📆 Join us on our YouTube livestream tomorrow (Thu 30 July) at 5:30pm AEST, and be a part of it wherever you are 🥳! https://www.youtube.com/live/TTGNLcoWoRY

19/07/2026

The Resilience Canopy is pleased to partner with Gender and Disaster Australia as part of our shared commitment to strengthening inclusive and collaborative approaches across the disaster management sector and Australian communities.

We know that communities and the sector are stronger when we work together. Our partnership brings more diverse perspectives, knowledge and lived experience into conversations about resilience, preparedness and recovery.

We look forward to working alongside Gender and Disaster Australia as one of our valued partners across the sector, to continue building capability, connection and resilience together.

https://genderanddisaster.com.au/

Alt: Black graphic featuring the logos of Gender and Disaster Australia and The Resilience Canopy with the headline: Strengthening Inclusive Resilience.

17/07/2026

This year’s Australian Loneliness Dialogue, run by our friends at Friends for Good, explores loneliness through the lens of wellbeing, identity, belonging, systems and community connection.

Bringing together researchers, practitioners and lived experience voices, it will examine how more integrated approaches can support connection and wellbeing across our communities.

The Canopy is pleased to be part of this special national conversation, with our Managing Director Brett Ellis leading an interactive workshop – Building Your Resilience from the Inside Out – in which he will draw on his 30 years of experience across government, emergency management, community strengthening and resilience sectors to explore personal resilience in an age of loneliness.

Register for the Australian Loneliness Dialogue, which takes place online on 30 July, here: https://tald.zohobackstage.com.au/TheMindBodyConnectionRethinkingLonelinessforWholePersonWellbeing #/

14/07/2026

There is always a special energy when you bring together people with lived experience who care deeply about their communities.

16 community leaders recently completed The Resilience Canopy Practitioner Training at Port Macquarie’s historic Roto House on Birpai Country. From across a region spanning more than 200 kilometres, they brought experience from community organisations, community halls, surf clubs, grassroots initiatives and local leadership. Different places. Different stories. One shared purpose.

The NSW Mid North Coast knows resilience. Many communities are still recovering from floods while navigating the ongoing pressures of housing, cost of living and climate impacts.

Using the Canopy's Six-Step Engagement Model, participants shifted their focus from what has happened to what comes next. Together they explored the question: How do we help communities build stronger connections, greater confidence and local leadership before the next challenge arrives?

Over two days in an amazing natural setting, this engaged group shared ideas, challenged assumptions, and built relationships that will continue well beyond the training.

Stronger communities grow one conversation, one connection and one local leader at a time. We can’t wait to see what our newest Resilience Canopy Practitioners create in their communities!

Check out our upcoming Practitioner Training dates and locations here: https://www.resiliencecanopy.com.au/training/training-details

10/07/2026

INVITATION INCOMING! Tune in this month to our Live Thought Leadership Panel “Why aren’t we building the villages we know we need?”

🛜We’re broadcasting live on Youtube.com/
⏰Thursday 30th July
5.30pm AEST.

RSVP and we'll be sure to email you a link and reminder!
https://pb0tudf3y1a.typeform.com/to/ad0k8EaL

✴️Our incredible panellists:
Kate Cotter, CEO and Founder, Resilient Building Council
Natalie Egleton, CEO, Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR)
Nicola Stokes, CEO, AMP Foundation
Canopy Community guests.

✴️Our topic
When crisis strikes, it's not just the physical infrastructure that matters. Social connection, community trust, neighbours helping others – these are often the difference between communities that recover and those that struggle. So why is investing in the invisible infrastructure of community failing to launch?

The Resilience Canopy’s Keynote Panel will go further than discussion.. it will inspire action among all of us by asking:
✴️ “What’s holding us back from the shift forward and what can we all do about it?”
✴️“What are the most important things we can do now?”

One not to be missed!

02/07/2026

It was great to see such a strong turnout – around 45 Warburton locals – turning up to hear about the community Resilience Plan being developed by the Warburton Emergency Planning Group.

They discussed six focus areas to increase the town's ability to withstand, adapt to and recover from adverse challenges, and inclusively asked attendees to provide thoughts on the draft plan and identify any gaps.

The group is now working to collate the feedback and finalise the Resilience Plan. It hopes to encourage further opportunities for the community to get involved in the actions within the plan, to help boost Warburton's community connections, food security, renewable energy, bushfire and emergency readiness, and other focus areas.

Get to know Warburton on their Canopy Community profile: https://www.resiliencecanopy.com.au/canopy-communities/community-profile?community_id=recrl1T009DlpRB4a

25/06/2026

Build skills. Strengthen connections. Activate for impact.

More than 350 people have completed our Practitioner Training and are now putting community-led action at the centre of resilience. With their community groups, they’re rethinking how they prepare, connect, and take charge of their own futures. The result: positive, tangible changes in their communities.

Be part of this ripple effect happening across Australia and help your community grow stronger. As a Resilience Canopy Practitioner, you’ll be given a proven framework and access to essential tools, resources, Activation Grants, partners and networks to bring your community actions to life.

The next stop on our Practitioner Training schedule is Hobart, beginning on 22 July and running over four sessions. This training is limited to 30 people and places are filling fast, so find out more now: https://www.resiliencecanopy.com.au/training

22/06/2026

🎤 Our very own Leanne Riggs was recently interviewed on ‘Influence Me’, a leadership podcast series hosted by Andrew Short AFSM that explores the big challenges facing the emergency services industry!

In the episode, Leanne discusses the concept of community resilience, and why some communities are able to better prepare for, withstand, and recover from emergency incidents and disasters than others.

She highlights social connection, local leadership, preparedness and community capability, and why building resilience before disaster strikes may be one of the most important investments we can make as a nation.

Listen to the thought-provoking conversation on:
Podbean - https://ajshort.podbean.com/e/the-resilience-factor-leanne-riggs-influence-me-podcast-season-3-episode-6/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/7yShlGWZpmsljM8gC3EAkJ

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Melbourne, VIC

Website

http://www.resiliencecanopy.com.au/

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