It is with great pleasure and some relief that I make available to you the final report on the collaborative research between the state-funded drought counsellors and The Bouverie Centre. The report is very comprehensive and hence it is a very large document which makes it a bit unwieldy. It requires dipping into for everyone except the most ardent reader. I made a decision to keep it comprehensive because drought response expertise is often lost as indicated in the report.
The report, which is based on the work of the Victorian drought counsellors, their colleagues and clients between February 2007 and September 2008, responds to the research question, “How to provide effective counselling and community development support to drought affected communities.” The project was funded by the Department of Human Services, Victoria.
One of the findings of the research indicated that hard won practice wisdom is often lost between droughts. Also available to download is a 50 page summary report which will hopefully make the findings of this comprehensive research project more accessible, thus helping inform not only future drought responses, but also other challenges faced by rural communities. The report provides recommendations to government and conceptual and practical ideas for services and workers. This summary, like the full report, reflects the hard work, dedication, flexibility and skill of the many people who helped address the insidious and ongoing serious impact of the recent Victorian drought.
This report reflects the enormous work done by everyone who participated in the collaborative research and I hope the content adequately captures the richness of the practice wisdom developed across the state by all of the drought counsellors, their colleagues and clients.
Best wishes
Jeff Young
Director
The Bouverie Centre, on behalf of the Drought Support Team.
Download the report in full, or section by section below:
Table of Contents (76kb)
Acknowledgements, Excecutive Summary, Key Learnings, and Recommendations
1. Introduction (200kb)
2. Brief literature review (348kb)
3. Methodology and procedures (534kb)
4. The CIG-CIGAR structure (2.77mb)
5. Conceptualising drought (400kb)
6. Drought counselling strategies (713kb)
7. The relationship between drought counselling and community development (362kb)
8. How to structure drought counselling services (152kb)
9. Conclusion and summary (126kb)
10. Appendices (422kb)
11. References (271kb)
