Planning for Resilience

Resilience is our community’s ability to bounce back from tough times, adapt to change and grow stronger.

It’s about more than just responding to emergencies – it’s about building the foundations to withstand stress, recover quickly and thrive together in the face of uncertainty.

We are developing a Resilience Strategy to help our community prepare for and respond to future challenges. This strategy will set out actionable ways we can support each other during tough times and create a connected, prepared and adaptable Sutherland Shire.

When we talk about resilience, we often group the challenges our community faces as either shocks or stresses:

• Shocks are sudden, sharp events that can have big impacts on a community – such as heatwaves, floods and pandemics.
• Stresses are the ongoing issues that impact on our daily lives and make it more difficult to cope when times are tough – like cost of living and availability of transport.

When we understand the shocks and stresses people face in our area, we can plan ahead and help ensure everyone gets the support they need.

Have your say

Our initial consultation took place between 7 July and 10 August 2025. This was the first step in developing Sutherland Shire’s inaugural Resilience Strategy.

As part of this, we held a series of deliberative workshops with a representative group of community members in September 2025 to explore some of the deeper issues around resilience in more detail.

The insights and lived experiences of our local community are central to shaping a Resilience Strategy that reflects the real needs of Sutherland Shire. Outcomes of the engagement are available in the News Feed below.

We are continuing to work with our local community and stakeholders into 2026 to build a strategy that reflects our shared priorities.

Next steps

All feedback and comments received to date will be considered throughout the process, and we’ll provide updates on what we’ve heard on this page.

Once the draft strategy is complete, it will be placed on public exhibition in 2026, giving you another opportunity to share your feedback before it is finalised. Following this, the strategy will be reported back to Council for final adoption.