Preparing your community for emergencies
What is community resilience?
We know that London’s resilience to emergencies is reliant on everyone working together. London’s responders including emergency services and local authorities play a key role – as do London’s diverse communities, faith groups and voluntary sector.
Community Resilience aims to empower communities to better prepare, respond and recover to and from emergencies.
Community Resilience Fund
- What does a whole-of-society approach to resilience look like?
- How can emergency planning teams in local authorities across London work closer with local community organisations to coordinate preparedness, response to and recovery from emergencies?
- Can we build a resilient city without engaging and capturing the voices of community, faith, equalities, voluntary and civil society organisations?
The Community Resilience Fund is part of our ongoing work to deliver the Mayor’s commitment to ensuring London remains resilient and prepared for future challenges. The funding programme aims to build stronger resilience by supporting community organisations to work together with their local authority emergency planning teams to best prepare for emergencies in their London boroughs.
The fund is delivered in partnership with the London Communities Emergencies Partnership (LCEP). LCEP contributes directly to the London Resilience Forum exercising and emergency response whilst supporting civil society engagement in resilience. Round three of the programme will be announced later in the year.
We are pleased to announce a new cohort of round two grantees and invite you to explore the organisations and their projects below.
Round two grantees
Bexley Voluntary Service Council
Resilient Together in Bexley; a coordinated approach to emergency planning
BVSC will coordinate a joined-up approach with the Borough Resilience Forum (BRF) and the Voluntary and Community sector (VCS) in Bexley to strengthen emergency response in the borough. Through this partnership, we will build a network in Bexley that is better prepared, connected, and aware of how to best respond in an emergency. This will lead to an increased level of understanding, create a catalyst for mobilisation, and strengthen community resilience.
Building Back Better: Resilient Bromley a prepared and engaged community.
Community Links Bromley, in partnership with the Borough Emergency Planning and Corporate Resilience Lead, will engage, test and learn, and co-produce new approaches to local community resilience in Bromley. An engagement programme with local voluntary and community organisations is planned to assess current understanding of risks and to pilot the local co-production of a community emergency plan in partnership with local voluntary and community organisations. Central to this will be assessing community understanding of available resources, skills and facilities and communications.
Connecting communities
Community Southwark will bring charities and community groups together with the council’s emergency planners to share communications and respond to emergencies.
Ealing and Hounslow Community Voluntary Service
Borough Resilience Network
A Borough-wide Resilience Network was designed and launched in collaboration between the Ealing and Hounslow Community Voluntary Service and the Ealing Council Emergency Management Team. The partnership will engage town forums, residents, voluntary, community and faith sectors in Ealing to raise awareness of emergency planning through network meetings. The partnership will undertake a community mapping exercise to develop a community asset register and community response emergency plan.
Richmond upon Thames Council for Voluntary Service
Strengthening Local Community Resilience to Support Richmond’s Response to Emergencies
Richmond CVS aims to improve community preparedness for emergencies by working with VCSF and statutory partners. Through a mapping exercise we will: Review the VCSF’s role and contribution in recent emergencies, undertake a survey and discussions with the VCSF to understand their contribution, assess interest in partnership work and explore how to join up with statutory response, produce a report to inform future resilience strategies and deliver a workshop for the VCSF on emergency preparedness.
Thames Life
BD_Community Resilience Network
BD_Community Resilience Network aims to enable better connections, accountability and trust between social sector organisations, existing networks, and statutory responders to improve the resilience of Barking and Dagenham in the face of emergencies.
A Stronger Hackney; Community Response & Resilience
Volunteer Centre Hackney and Hackney Council would like to work together to increase engagement, trust and understanding between the voluntary sector and the Emergency Planning Team. We will gather insight and learning into the response of the community and voluntary sector to emergencies and ongoing community issues. This will inform an inclusive, “whole-of-society” approach to resilience, boosting Hackney’s preparedness to face challenges including climate change, the ongoing cost of living crisis and continued COVID recovery.
Hammersmith & Fulham Volunteer Centre
H&F Community Resilience Alliance
This project will connect and facilitate long-term collaboration between Hammersmith & Fulham’s Emergency Response and the voluntary and community sector. It will help to produce a joint plan through an understanding of the skills, resources, and space the voluntary sector can offer during an emergency.
Volunteer Centre Kensington & Chelsea
Community-Centred Preparedness and Resilience
Working with residents, community organisations, our local authority and emergency services partners, we will rethink and remake the systems we use to plan for, and respond to, emergencies, learning lessons from recent local experience and acknowledging the importance of the skills, knowledge and relationships of the people who live in our borough to planning for and responding to a wide range of potential emergencies. This will result in improved plans and a better prepared borough.
BLEEP - Brent Leaders Equality & Emergency Partners
In the event of an emergency, local people turn to trusted organisations.
There is a need for better communication and reach to underserved communities in an emergency. The BLEEP initiative aims to alert, advice and accelerate the engagement of local leaders from diverse backgrounds and the faith community that could play a greater role both in the event of an emergency and after an urgent incident.
Brent Resilience Team and CVS Brent skill-up and support faith-based and frontline leaders in Brent. Together they will connect, communicate, and inform Brent's Boroughs resilience strategy and action plan.
Building Resilience
Working with residents, volunteers, and community workers we will improve and develop more effective partnerships between key stakeholders for a shared strategy to building resilience and emergencies. This will be done through involvement in strategic planning, community workshops, and pro-active engagement.
Round one grantees
Barnet Community Resilience Project
We will use our community partnerships and connections and in-depth working knowledge and relationships with statutory services and first providers, to improve engagement and preparedness. We will engage with seldom-heard communities, improve knowledge of the impact of emergencies on them and co-deliver dedicated support and activities. This will include the following. Representation at and participation in planning and capability events; champions and volunteers; accessible information distribution. This will lead to a new co-produced Community Resilience Plan.
Camden VCSE Sector Community Resilience
Through the Fund we are seeking to achieve the following:
- Review of learning from recent emergency responses (e.g. flooding, Afghan, Ukraine, Covid) in terms of council/ VCS mobilisation and response.
- Develop a response framework- a visual tool about who to contact in an emergency and roles and responsibilities within the VCS and council.
- Shared data collection/ intelligence across the sector including, who is doing what/ collection analysis of issues on the ground/ feedback loop to emergency response to aid ongoing planning.
Reflect, Review and Realise
Working with Croydon’s six Local Community Partnerships on crisis response. Learning from the pandemic and other local fires and civil unrest incidents, we’ll collectively consider: what did we do? What did we learn? Building our strengths planning in partnership: what can we implement for the future? What can we deliver in partnership? We will create an accessible repository of information and guides on ‘what to do in the event of...’.
Enfield Voluntary and Community Response Project
Enfield Voluntary Action (EVA) wants to use lessons learnt from the covid pandemic, particularly how plans are beneficial, but communication channels are essential to successful responses and recovery from emergencies. Strong networks have emerged since covid and the Successful Enfield Stands Together response, which will enable EVA to utilise our many VCS contacts and networks, Volunteer Centre and trusted relationships with key stakeholders for a shared strategy to an emergency.
Working Together, Building Community Resilience in Royal Greenwich
A project that supports the partnership between Royal Greenwich and the voluntary, community and faith sector in Greenwich, to provide a cohesive approach to emergency planning. This will ensure greater understanding and utilisation of the resources available, prompt mobilisation and greater community resilience.
What If? A VCS Guide to Emergency Planning, Response & Recovery
What If? is an online resource co-designed between the Bridge Renewal Trust, VCS Groups, and the Emergency Planning team at Haringey Council, to help Haringey’s voluntary sector prepare, respond, and recover effectively from emergencies in the borough by providing relevant information and guidance. What If? will be launched in summer 2023, providing a valuable resource to Haringey’s VCS.
Building, Strengthening Community Resilience and Response
HVC will strengthen relationships between the VCFS and Statutory agencies ensuring that there are improved channels of communication in place. By channelling past learning and sharing this intelligence with sector partners it will increase the rate of response, up time and delivery, ensuring that the smoothest approach is taken from the outset. By increasing community preparedness, HVC will develop a strong, thriving, resilient community that is connected, prepared and stronger.
Strengthening Community Resilience in Islington
We will empower individuals and local communities to use local resources and knowledge to help themselves and their communities in an emergency. We will build resilience by making them aware of risks that are impacting and might impact on the community and plan and prepare for them to help minimise impact and disruption. We will develop a shared purpose to encourage individuals and communities to come together to help themselves and each other.
VCSE Resilience Forum
To establish a local VCSE Resilience Forum (linked to the Borough Resilience Forum) in order to build the capacity of voluntary and community organisations who support residents and communities in Kingston to develop their resilience and support roles in advance of, during and after emergency incidents.
Resilient Together: Connecting Lewisham Council with Voluntary and Community groups and Volunteers
Lewisham Local will coordinate and co-design a new emergency response process with the council and voluntary organisations drawing on each stakeholder’s unique strengths. Together we will build the foundation of an engaged network of individuals, voluntary and statutory organisations that will be better connected and prepared, more clearly understanding the roles, systems and communication networks when there is an emergency. They will be connected through a database and Community Directory to streamline and speed communication.
Community Volunteer Emergency Squad
Over the six months, working in partnership with the local authority, voluntary sector and local residents, we aim to develop a Community Volunteer emergency plan. Mapping of services, training and a communication plan, we will recruit, train and equip local residents into key voluntary roles to work with partnership professionals and local services. Our aim will be to create a cohesive and responsive support programme with capacity to meet the needs of a local emergency.
London Communities Emergencies Partnership
The London Communities Emergencies Partnership (LCEP) exists to coordinate preparedness and response to major emergencies with London’s voluntary and community sector. LCEP is powered through a partnership between London Plus and the VCS Emergencies Partnership.
Reporting to the London Resilience Forum, LCEP is a three-year funded project by the Greater London Authority, London Councils and City Bridge Trust.
LCEP aims to improve responses to emergencies through building stronger connections across London’s voluntary, community, faith, and equalities sectors. The project will work closely with London’s funding community, local authorities, emergency services, and wider statutory agencies. LCEP will improve learning from emergencies and build greater preparedness for the future.
You can connect with LCEP by emailing them on [email protected].
London Faith and Belief Sector Panel
The London Faith and Belief Sector Panel exists to support preparedness and response to major emergencies with London’s faith and belief communities. The Panel plays an important role in the wider London Communities Emergencies Partnership.
The Panel is chaired by Dr Deesha Chadha from the Hindu Forum and Father Alastair Cutting, Archdeacon of Lewisham and Greenwich.
The London Boroughs Faiths Network (LBFN) acts as Secretariat for the Panel and you can reach them on [email protected].
LBFN also deliver our community resilience training for faith communities. Find out more about the training programme and how to sign up.
London Community Resilience Toolkit
The GLA has commissioned Groundwork South and Groundwork London to produce a London Community Resilience Toolkit. This project will be delivered in 2024.
The toolkit will produce guidance and templates on community emergency planning, community volunteering and wider.
To find out more contact [email protected].
Find out more
If you have questions or would like to connect to London Resilience’s community resilience work, please email Clifford Fleming, GLA Principal Community Resilience Officer, at [email protected].