Five actions to build social resilience in a changing climate
We know the social impacts of climate change are real — and already here. You can read more about what they are in my previous article.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve watched the news—bushfires, floods, families evacuated again—and felt that deep, familiar pit in my stomach. A quiet voice that says: We knew this was coming.
And yet, the response still feels like a scramble. We keep patching up what’s broken—rather than changing the systems that fail in the first place.
The question is no longer what's happening — it's what are we doing about it?
Here are five practical, people-first actions we need to take now to strengthen social resilience where it counts.
1. Shift investment towards capability and capacity building
Most funding still favours infrastructure, insurance, and emergency response. But true social resilience isn’t built overnight — it's built through long-term, trust-based work.
We need to fund community services, not just retrofit buildings. That means stable support for neighbourhood centres, community development roles, grassroots organisations, and local leaders who know what works — but rarely have the budget to act early.
These efforts often go unfunded because they don’t fit neatly into capital investment models. But they are the backbone of how communities prepare, adapt, and recover.
2. Plan with people, not just for places
Heat maps and hazard zones are critical — but they won’t tell you who doesn’t own a car, who lives alone with a chronic illness, or who misses emergency messages altogether.
We need to plan with people in mind — not just land use and risk exposure. That means bringing social vulnerability data alongside climate modelling in every local and regional plan.
Start with the people at greatest risk, and codesign adaptation with them — not just for them.
Too often, housing, health, care, and social support are treated as separate from ‘climate infrastructure’. That separation is costing us time, trust, and resilience.
3. Treat social housing as climate infrastructure
Renters and social housing tenants are often living in the most climate-exposed housing, but are frequently overlooked in resilience programs.
Cooling. Ventilation. Insulation. Clean air.
These shouldn’t be optional extras in public and social housing—they’re core to safety and dignity in a warming world.
Yet renters are still missing out. Most adaptation funding still goes to homeowners for retrofits, insurance relief, and upgrades. Renters and social housing tenants are treated like an edge case—when in reality, they’re at the centre of climate exposure.
We need to flip that logic. The people with the least power to adapt should be first in line for support, not last.
4. Support the support systems
When disruption hits, it’s often family, neighbours, and community groups that respond first — well before formal systems kick in.
But those same informal networks are under pressure: carers are exhausted, volunteers are ageing, and community connections are becoming more fragile.
These support systems need recognition and investment. Respite care, community transport, social connection programs, and multilingual resources all help ensure people aren’t isolated or left behind when change arrives.
The research is clear: connected communities recover faster. But that connection needs tending — and funding — long before the crisis hits.
5. Rebuild trust through local leadership
Many communities feel that climate policy happens to them, not with them.
Rebuilding trust means resourcing communities to lead, not just respond. That includes funding First Nations-led adaptation, listening to lived experience, and embedding local representatives into planning and recovery structures — permanently, not temporarily.
We also need a structural shift
These actions can’t succeed if they’re working against systems that still treat social resilience as an afterthought.
Most climate adaptation is still led through the lenses of infrastructure and emergency response. Social systems — housing, health, education, care — are rarely treated as critical infrastructure. And equity is often seen as a positive outcome, rather than a principle to lead with.
That needs to change — not just for the sake of efficiency, but because lives, livelihoods, and wellbeing are on the line.
Socially-led planning in action: Embedding lived experience and local leadership into governance structures is essential for climate resilience that works on the ground.
We need to embed social resilience and equity into:
Funding models – that prioritise long-term community capacity, not just short-term recovery
Governance structures – where First Nations expertise, lived experience, and local leadership are part of every decision
Measurement frameworks – that treat connection, inclusion, and access as essential indicators of success
This shift isn’t about adding new layers of complexity. It’s about respecting the depth of knowledge that already exists in communities — and designing systems that care as much about people as they do about assets.
Because at its heart, climate adaptation is about helping people stay safe, well, and connected in a changing world. And that work deserves to be taken seriously.
What now?
If there’s one thing the last decade has shown us, it’s that climate resilience is inseparable from human wellbeing.
The strength of communities — their connections, trust, capacity to care for one another — will define how well we adapt. That means we need to understand people as deeply as we understand flood maps or energy systems.
Social resilience isn’t a byproduct of good climate planning. It’s the human measure of whether that planning works.
When we prioritise connection, inclusion, and lived experience in how we fund, govern, and design, we don’t just reduce risk. We build fairer, more capable systems for everyone.
Want to explore how to embed social resilience into your project or strategy? Reach out to Liesl Codrington, Director Vaere Social, for a conversation (liesl@vaeresocial.au).
