The Power of Coming Together: Why the Community Congress Matters

There is something powerful about being in a room with people who just get it. People who have lived through fire, flood, loss and the long road of recovery. People who understand that real “resilience” does not come from top-down systems, policy documents or external interventions. It comes from our relationships. From the trust we build. From the networks we hold and the ways we show up for each other.

This is what the Community Congress is about. It is a time to gather, to share stories, to listen deeply and to reconnect with the wisdom that lives within our communities. Because we know that those closest to the context are also closest to the solutions. When we make space for each other to speak and be heard, something shifts - in our own assumptions, in the way we relate to each other, and slowly, we hope, in the systems that are meant to support us.

So much of what communities experience during and after disaster is shaped by deep, long-standing systemic inequities. These include the marginalisation of First Nations peoples, the exclusion of culturally diverse voices, the failure to listen to people with disability, and the invisibility of many rural and remote communities in decision-making processes. Disaster recovery often reinforces these inequities, rather than addressing them. Too often, it is done to us, not with us. This needs to change.

The Congress creates a different kind of space. It is shaped by community, for community. It holds space for stories, not as case studies or data points, but as our truth. We will explore what community leadership looks like when it is relational, place-based, and grounded in lived experience. We will hear stories that hold both struggle and strength, because both are parts of what it means to navigate disaster and recovery.

Together, we will be asking bold and necessary questions. What needs to change? How do we shift power, not just share it temporarily or symbolically? How do we move beyond ‘engagement’ to genuine self-determination and shared governance? How do we centre care, justice and cultural safety in systems that have historically marginalised the very communities they claim to serve?

This Congress is a place to connect, to learn, and to imagine futures where communities are stronger, just and thriving in the face of future uncertainties.

If you have been walking this path with DisasterWISE already, we look forward to reconnecting. And if this is your first time, you are warmly welcomed. 

Secure your spot: https://events.humanitix.com/community-congress

#CommunityCongress2025 #ByUsForUs #DisasterWISE #CommunityLed 

Community connectedness built on trust and on how we show up.