Devon Community Resilience Forum supports communities to develop their community emergency plan (CEP); a document that guides community response in an emergency and helps communities to prepare.
A key part of the support we deliver is facilitating Emergency Planning Workshops to introduce community organisations such as Town and Parish Councils to emergency planning.
Traditionally these have been very information-intensive, but following feedback, we have re-designed the workshops to much more interactive from the start. Participants undertake a short emergency plan exercise during which they consider real potential risks in their community and begin to assemble elements of an emergency plan. Guidance is given as the need arises, in response to questions.
We have found that community engagement has been much higher with this style of workshop, in some cases with more people attending than had booked! Having a more practical, step-by-step approach has proved less daunting to attendees and will lead to the development of more CEPs as a result, better protecting people and property in emergency situations.
Feedback from our recent community emergency planning workshop in Blackawton demonstrates the value of these workshops.
"I would just like to say what an excellent and informative talk you gave yesterday evening at Blackawton regarding the need for communities to establish plans to meet any emergencies which might occur.
"From talking with others after the event I gained the impression that everyone appreciated the talk and realised the need to prepare plans to meet whatever emergency that might take place." Jan Scott, Blackawton.
"Thank you for your time yesterday We all found it useful and enlightening, definitely time well spent. The creation of our local emergency plan is on the agenda for our July Parish Council meeting. Feed back from many attendees was that it was a successful and valuable evening." Ruth Coe, Blackawton Village Hall and Parish Council
