Shelter
What's waiting for you at the other end.
Evacuation centres in the Illawarra, Shoalhaven, and Campbelltown areas already carry sensory kits — noise-cancelling headphones, weighted toys, quiet tents — for anyone who needs them. Below: how to find them, what NDIS providers and support workers can prepare in advance, and a social story that walks through exactly what arriving looks like.
Two audiences, one page
For families arriving,
and for the people who prepare for them
Evacuation sensory kits
Sensory kits have been supplied to Illawarra, Shoalhaven, and Campbelltown City Council evacuation centres, to support anyone who needs extra help coping with a loud, crowded, unfamiliar space. Each kit contains noise-cancelling headphones, weighted toys, and tactile materials, plus small tents for when no quiet space exists.
Evacuation centre volunteers use the kit contents alongside other resources on site — instructions and floor plans for the relevant site are packed inside each bag.
To find out more, or to purchase a kit for your own organisation, contact Flagstaff on (02) 4272 0222.
NDIS & care providers
Preparing for a bushfire or flood is something every organisation supporting people with disability needs to do — for the people you support, and for the staff you employ. Flagstaff has put together a set of real planning materials for NDIS and care providers to download and share.
Social story: arriving at an evacuation centre
A social story is a short, plain-language, step-by-step description of what to expect in an unfamiliar situation — used to reduce anxiety for anyone who copes better with a predictable narrative than an in-the-moment verbal explanation. This one walks through exactly what arriving at an evacuation centre looks like.
Read it together with the person it's for, well before an emergency, so the evacuation centre is already familiar territory before anyone has to set foot in one.
Shelter isn't the end of the plan.
Knowing what's waiting for you is one part of it — the rest is knowing how you'll get there, and what to do when it's time to leave.