Supporting drought-affected communities with buy from the bush initiative
Created to encourage metropolitan shoppers to buy from businesses in rural communities facing drought, #buyfromthebush is a social media campaign making a huge difference. Small business owners and sellers in rural communities such as Cobar, Walgett and Gilgandra are featured on the #buyfromthebush Facebook and Instagram pages, which combined have over 120,000 followers.
Another initiative, the public Facebook group One Day Closer to Rain (Drought) – Rural Cottage Crafts has over 34,000 members and is a place for people in rural Australia to sell their homemade crafts.
As the Christmas season approaches, there is no better time to buy from the bush and support drought-affected regional communities.
Video: RAMHP Profile – Tessa Caton
Tessa Caton, Program Manager for the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP), speaks about mental health in rural communities. RAMHP exists to educate, encourage and link people to mental health support.
Community trauma toolkit
Created by Emerging Minds, an organisation dedicated to advancing the mental health of Australian children and families, the community trauma toolkit contains recourses for health professionals and GPS to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event.