Community Resilience

What is Community Resilience?

Community resilience is defined by the Scottish Government as:

“Communities and individuals harnessing resources and expertise to help themselves prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, in a way that complements the work of the emergency responders.”

Community resilience is based on a culture of preparedness, in which individuals, communities and organisations take responsibility to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies. There is no statutory responsibility for communities to plan for resilience but it is in the best interest of a community to identify potential local hazards and make simple preparations as to how they could help a local response and provide support to residents.

Preparing Scotland, Scottish Guidance on Resilience (2016) states that all responders should support the development of community resilience and should apply and encourage an innovative approach. Building community resilience should not be seen as an add-on, but should be carried out as part of responders’ day-to-day activities. The potential return on investment for responders in promoting community resilience is high, as they can unlock skills, knowledge and resources held by the entire community. Although we are not a blue light service, Moray Council are a category 1 responder.

Fore more information: https://ready.scot/get-involved/community-groups

Community Resilience Groups

The Moray Council have been working together with Community Councils to support Community Resilience Groups (CRGs) to develop preparedness in their area. CRGs are volunteers in your Community, who lead on developing and executing a local Community Emergency Plan. Although there is no statutory responsibility for communities to develop emergency plans, it is in the best interest of a community to identify risks and make simple plans on how they could support residents to respond to them.

An Emergency Plan is a document owned by the Community Resilience Group and outlines what they can do in an emergency situation to support local residents. CRGs are typically subgroups of the local Community Council but are also being facilitated through anchor organisations in some areas of Moray. CRGs do not do the work of the Emergency Services. Their Emergency Plans exist to complement a response delivery.

There are currently CRG and volunteers working in:
• Buckie
• Burghead & Cummingston
• Cullen
• Elgin
• Findhorn, The Park & Kinloss
• Forres
• Grange
• Keith
• Lossiemouth
• Portgordon
• Strathisla

If a CRG Emergency Plan is activated, they will communicate and work with Moray Council and are also a point of contact for local residents. Community Emergency Plans include details of volunteers so are not publicly available.

If you want to get involved in your Community Resilience Group, email: communitycouncil@moray.gov.uk

Household Resilience

We live in a relatively safe and stable society where we expect infrastructure to function as intended. Yet, life in Moray depends on power, water supply and the internet - which in turn makes us vulnerable. Storms, pandemics, natural disasters or technical problems can result in power outage, water supply cut-off’s or lack of essential goods.

A major event or crisis will affect residents and many people will be in need of help all at once. If a larger part of our population is able to take care of themselves and those around them, immediate help from the emergency services is more likely to reach those who need it most first. We are requesting all households in Moray to take a few simple steps to improve their own emergency preparedness.

It is very important to think about and plan for what you will do in an emergency before it happens to significantly reduce the risks to you and your household. Resilient communities often comes down to being a good neighbour. Building positive relationships with those who live around us can be invaluable when an emergency hits. Knowing who can provide a bit of assistance, or who might need it, makes a difference.

We have developed a guidance booklet to promote personal and household resilience in Moray. The aim of the booklet is to provide clear, simple and practical advice to help you prepare for an emergency. It also gives advice on preparing your household emergency plan. A lot of the information may seem common sense, but it has saved lives in the past.

Household Plan booklet