Tarnya Kruger

Supervisors: Dr Ruth Beilin and  Dr Rod Keenan (University of Melbourne).

Community response to fire is currently dependent on many aspects of volunteer engagement ranging from official agencies whose employees are expected to volunteer into support roles during fire seasons, to informal institutions like local community fireguard groups.  

Tarnya's research looked to establish who the stakeholders were in three locations (Canberra, South Australia and Victoria) and explored how the organisation of volunteer support groups contribute to surge capacity.

She sought to answer such questions as: Does the "double risk" paradigm assist in rethinking potential engagement strategies for more resilient volunteer organisational models? Can we rethink "surge capacity" in light of ideas about resilient social systems and how to extend the concept of 'volunteering' to community readiness?