Help your community prepare for an emergency

BARKING & DAGENHAM residents are being encouraged to join the British Red Cross Community Resilience Advocate Programme. The scheme helps people to develop the skills needed to help their community plan, prepare and respond to emergencies.

Residents can play a key role in supporting local communities and helping them to identify their strengths – and whether they are capable of responding to emergencies. The British Red Cross is now looking for community groups and engaged residents who want to take a lead in providing that support and thereby building stronger communities in Barking and Dagenham.

The Red Cross is holding sessions where community participants learn how community groups and statutory agencies can work together when an emergency strikes. The latest session took place at the Chadwell Heath Community Centre.

As part of the Red Cross workshops, attendees learn and practice how they can work together with other community members and organisations to:
•identify the key concerns affecting their community and build an understanding of risks and hazards from a community perspective;
•explore the appetite for communities to work collaboratively with the British Red Cross to build links between the public, local authority and emergency services;
•work together to produce a programme of training to enable community groups to be better prepared for when emergencies happen in their areas.

Participating groups will be supported over the next few months with tailored training which aims are to build leadership and strengthen links between communities, local authorities and the emergencies services.

•If you would like to take part or want to know more about the project, contact Alessandro Froldi, Community Resilience Project Officer at British Red Cross:
alessandrofroldi@redcross.org.uk
07841-727 036.

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