The Drought Project was implemented from February 2007 – September 2008. The Bouverie Centre played a central role in the rollout of this project, which was funded by DHS.
Rural drought-affected people are often seen as reluctant to seek counselling support despite experiencing major emotional stress, at times resulting in suicide. Traditional counselling approaches have struggled to engage this population and calls for the service system’s response to drought to be more co-ordinated have been translated into action. The current drought has caused unprecedented stress on rural communities because of its length, severity, and the underlying context of rapid sociological and economic changes affecting rural communities.
The Drought Project sought to explore effective counselling and community development strategies for supporting people in drought affected rural communities, and provide information relevant to addressing the above issues.
The following pages contain information about the various components of this project.
*The No Bull Support program has continued to run past the completion of the drought project and is currently funded by the Department of Planning and Community Development. This facilitator training is for counsellors working in drought and/or bushfire affected communities.
The final Drought Report is now available.
The Interim Report, covering the period December 2006 to February 2008, is also available for download (see resources on left).
