Preparing your community for emergencies

London Borough of Lambeth

The Brixton Project CIC

This funding will support the development of a community resilience ecosystem to better connect the knowledge and experience of Lambeth’s VCS and faith sectors with statutory partners. The ecosystem will then inform the Borough's planning protocols, ensuring just and appropriate provision for our diverse population in the event of emergency; and placing the needs of all Lambeth residents equally at the centre of our emergency practice. The ecosystem will be visually accessible via the One Planet platform and will map provision across the borough's neighbourhoods.

London Borough of Hillingdon

Hillingdon Federation of Community Associations

The Hillingdon Federation of Community Associations, in partnership with the London Borough of Hillingdon and H4All, are collaboratively working on a project to enhance Hillingdon’s response, preparedness, and recovery capabilities in emergencies, whether its flooding, fires, or other incidences. The project will provide practical advice, expert insights, and opportunities to engage with key emergency response organisations in Hillingdon.  As well as to share and connect with other local groups to strengthen community resilience networks. They plan to host a series of workshops, events, and surveys on a local community resilience plan.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the City of London

Tower Hamlets CVS

This community resilient project involves Tower Hamlets CVS, Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets and all six equalities networks in Tower Hamlets (Older People’s Reference Group, Disabled People’s Network, the Women’s Network, the Ethnic Minority Network, the Interfaith Forum, and the LGBT Network). We will be carrying out a scoping exercise and survey to understand the different networks and structures there are in the borough, and ways that information could be disseminated in the event of an emergency. At the end we will produce a report with recommendations, to include a sustainable model for carrying the work forward and funding suggestions. The project will work with partners in the City of London.

London Borough of Newham

One Newham

One Newham is leading a collaborative initiative to strengthen emergency preparedness and response in Newham by harnessing the skills, knowledge, and relationships of local residents, community organisations, and key partners. We will work closely with Community & Faith Groups as well Newham Council’s Emergency Planning and Resilience Team, aligning our efforts with local resilience priorities and the Just Transition Plans. With this collaborative approach we will improve the systems used to plan for and respond to emergencies, ensuring a more coordinated and community-led approach. Through this initiative, we aim to create a more resilient and better-prepared borough, where communities are actively involved in shaping emergency plans and responses.

London Borough of Merton

Commonside Community Development Trust

Based on experiences in 2022, co-running the Relief Centre following the Galpins Road gas explosion with Merton Council, this project seeks to identify and share the factors that enabled the Commonside Community Development Trust team to respond quickly, as well as the adaptations they made during this time. Working with the Merton Borough Resilience Forum, they will deliver guidance to community organisations across the borough, sharing learning and helping them to find and build local resilience. At the same time, assisting Merton Council to identify and partner with organisations and individuals who will quickly respond to any future crises.

London Borough of Wandsworth

Earlsfield Community Land Trust

Earlsfield Community Land Trust (ECLT) proposes an equity-driven, collaborative approach to the Community Resilience Fund project in Wandsworth, aiming to build a resilient, inclusive community. By engaging local authorities, emergency services, businesses, residents, and grassroots organisations, ECLT seeks to address systemic inequities exposed by COVID-19 and create a sustainable, community-centred resilience framework. The project will involve diverse stakeholders in planning, training, and response exercises, ensuring emergency strategies reflect local needs. ECLT will align with the Wandsworth Borough Resilience Forum, prioritise cultural sensitivity, and foster partnerships to enhance local capacity. This model promotes systemic change, embedding equity and inclusivity in resilience planning for future challenges.

London Borough of Westminster

One Westminster

One Westminster and the Resilience Team at the London borough of Westminster are joining efforts to deliver community resilience initiatives that aim to empower communities and individuals to prepare, respond to and recover from future emergencies and major incidents. We are doing this through a programme of activities that include: raising awareness in the local voluntary sector and developing distinctive branding for emergency communications; hosting community resilience events and trainings with the local voluntary and faith sectors; developing a community resilience resources page on our website; and delivering a small grants programme to the local voluntary sector that enables organisations to better prepare and respond to emergencies as one community.

London Borough of Waltham Forest

Waltham Forest CVS Transition Board

The Waltham Forest CVS Transition Board and partners will provide a robust platform for fostering partnerships, aligning emergency planning efforts, and embedding community insights into the design and delivery of emergency and resilience plans. The project’s emphasis on strengthening emergency preparedness and response will ensure that VCS organisations are better integrated into borough-wide resilience frameworks.

London Borough of Hounslow

C-Change West London

C-Change West London, in partnership with the London Borough of Hounslow, is delivering Connected Resilience: Hounslow Together for Emergencies — a borough-wide initiative to strengthen community emergency preparedness. This project will establish the first inclusive Hounslow Community Resilience Partnership Network (HCRPN), bringing together grassroots organisations, faith groups, and statutory services. The programme will engage groups in Equality Opportunity Area Clusters to co-develop local response plans, run resilience workshops, and recruit Community Resilience Champions. It aims to improve coordination, build local capacity, enhance communications and data-sharing, and contribute to borough and London-wide emergency planning efforts.

London Borough of Redbridge

Community Action Redbridge

This project aims to improve emergency preparedness and foster closer collaboration between VCFSE organisations and statutory partners. Community Action Redbridge will conduct a survey and deliver co-design workshops to gather insights from previous emergency responses and identify local strengths and vulnerabilities. This will inform the development of a co-designed Community Resilience Strategy - a proactive plan which sets out practical recommendations to enhance the ability of local communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies. Unlike a reactive emergency response framework, it will focus on long-term capacity-building, collaboration and prevention, ensuring communities are better equipped before a crisis occurs. 

London Borough of Bexley

Bexley Voluntary Service Council

Resilient Together in Bexley; a coordinated approach to emergency planning.

Bexley Voluntary Service Council (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.

London Borough of Bromley

Community Links Bromley

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.

London Borough of Southwark

Community Southwark

Connecting communities

Community Southwark will bring charities and community groups together with the council’s emergency planners to share communications and respond to emergencies.

London Borough of Ealing

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.

London Borough of Richmond

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.

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

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.

London Borough of Hackney

Volunteer Centre Hackney

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.

London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham

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.

London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea

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.

London Borough of Brent

CVS Brent

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.

London Borough of Harrow

Voluntary Action Harrow CIC

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.

London Borough of Barnet

CommUNITY Barnet

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.

London Borough of Camden

Voluntary Action Camden

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.

London Borough of Croydon

Croydon Voluntary Action

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...’.  

London Borough of Enfield

Enfield Voluntary Action

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.

London Borough of Greenwich

Volunteer Centre Greenwich

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.

London Borough of Haringey

Bridge Renewal Trust

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.

London Borough of Havering

Havering Volunteer Centre

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.

London Borough of Islington

Voluntary Action Islington

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.

London Borough of Kingston

Kingston Voluntary Action

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.

London Borough of Lewisham

Lewisham Local

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.

London Borough of Sutton

Volunteer Centre Sutton

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.