Communities recover best when they are supported to manage their own recovery. The primary method of ensuring and fostering community management of recovery after an event is through the establishment of community recovery committees.

Establishment:

The Municipal Recovery Manager has the responsibility to ensure the establishment of community recovery committees as soon as possible after the emergency; existing local community representative committees should be used where possible.

The community recovery committee is a sub-committee to the Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee.

Membership:

Membership of community recovery committees will depend on the needs of the affected areas and should include:

Where there is capacity to assist with recovery services, involvement should also come from local community agencies and private businesses.

Functions:

Community recovery committees help individuals and communities achieve an effective level of functioning. They can coordinate information, resources, and services in support of an affected community, establish priorities and provide information and advice to the affected community and recovery agencies.

Role:

The role of the community recovery committee is to:

The following diagram is an exampleof a Recovery Committee Structure that might beutilised following a large scale emergency.

Figure 30– Example of Recovery Committee Structure