How to start a Community Resilience Plan
You’ve been led to this section as your community has tasked you or your organisation with creation of a Community Resilience Plan - possibly as a result of an emergency or extreme weather impact being felt locally or because you are looking to be one step ahead and be prepared for one occurring. That is the very ethos of a Community Resilience Plan - being prepared. The following information is not a definitive guide for what should or should not be contained within your Community Resilience Plan, but we hope it gives enough straightforward guidance on how to get started along with follow on information to support you.
What is Community Resilience Planning?
“Communities and individuals harnessing local resources and expertise to help themselves prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.”
- Ready Scotland
Creating a Community Resilience Plan is very simply put, about being prepared. It is about you and your community knowing what assets, people, spaces and resources will be available in your community should an emergency occur. Who is going to talk to who? Where can people gather? What do you need to make that happen. Having meaningful conversations with your community and who can support so you can have a plan, a process in place - should you need it.
Community Resilience Planning has five key themes
Preparedness
Connection
Local knowledge
Community action
Recovery
Preparedness
Preparedness is having that plan, but also more than that. Having a plan but also ensuring that people in your community are aware of that plan. The people who are within that plan knowing and being accountable for what they can support you with in the plan should there be an emergency. A Community Resilience Plan needs to be a real, live, living document. One that is regularly reviewed and that your community is aware of. You can find a template Community Resilience Plan below, however please read on to help understand what you should be considering in that plan and how to keep it alive and regularly reviewed.
Connection
Who needs to be included? Are you approaching this as an interested individual? In which case please connect with groups in your area such as your local community council, development trust or similar anchor organisation. If you already one of those organisations, who else is operating in your area that you can connect, work on and include in your community resilience plan?
Resilience doesn’t happy alone or in a silo. The resources and support you need to create a successful community resilience plan which is live and actually works in the face of an emergency is dependent on the connections and resources you have available in your community. You should be looking to consider the following:
Engagement with your community - who has resources and would be willing to support, have you got up to date contact details
Who should be included? What are the community groups and resources operating in your area?
Consider workshops or events either with a small group or open to your community where you can map your assets, remembering that assets are not just buildings, generators, vehicles - the assets within your community also include people
The following Guide from the National Emergency Trust looks at how you can work with your community and groups within it to strengthen your Community Resilience Plan and approach.
Local Knowledge
Creating those connections in your community also creates a bank of local knowledge. The people in your community know it best. Where is vulnerable - a certain road that might become blocked in a heavy snowfall, areas prone to flooding, people who are more vulnerable but who are not connected with NHS services like Care for People.
Your Community Resilience Plan template invites you to risk assess those vulnerabilities in your community and encourage you to think about a plan to address them in the event of an emergency. It also looks to as above to map the assets available including buildings such as community spaces and as above also look towards the people in your community as also being assets.
There is also additional information that can help you to inform what risks to include:
Dynamic Coast - mapping of forecast coastal erosion and rising sea levels
Did you know we offer training in Community Resilience Planning? We run regular online training events and for groups of communities in the same area, can occasionally offer the training in person.
Join our Community Resilience Connect mailing list for more information. Or contact us using the button below to arrange a session for your area.