About

Building Resilience in London Havering is not a simple soliton. Our borough (Havering) is one of the largest at 43 sq miles, has lots of green space and open areas as well as hugely dense populated areas. We have been prone to flooding in the past, heatwave fires and community unrest.  We have a large elder population as well as a fast growing younger population; we are becoming more diverse and communities have different needs.

Despite strong efforts we are a borough that – until now – had little resilience plan. Following the pandemic, there was evidence that greater community cohesion was needed.  We supported the Afghan and Ukrainian humanitarian crisis and it was evident that our residents wanted to help but needed the coordination to do so.  We relied upon the voluntary sector to help coordinate this, but statutory partners did not know what support organisations could offer and how resilient, resourceful and supportive the VCSE was. Now was the time for change. 

Growing Community Resilience

We witnessed many crisis throughout London and in our own borough. We also saw how the voluntary sector stepped up and supported communities – not just on the short term but for many years to follow – it was evident that statutory partners did not know the full impact of the strength of the voluntary sector, like they were there to just make tea, role play or signpost people to other help.

Building Resilience in London Havering means everyone has a key role to play in making communities prepared.  After the pandemic, Grenfell and the humanitarian crisis this project was prime to build resilient with our local authority teams and have the VCSE embedded into programmes going forward.  We needed a plan of action and BRT has massively helped to facilitate this, in sharing their knowledge, expertise and focus on the mission. 

Impact

Better coordination, strong communication, focus, planning, action plans. 

We have built stronger relationships with the local authority resilience team and they appreciate they cannot achieve their mission without the support of the voluntary sector. We have highlighted this with the VCSE and they are more on board with the programme now than before.  The BRT has helped shape their involvement and coordinated an approach that is appropriate for all to be able to feel part of decision making whilst knowing their role in an emergency.

We still have a lot of work to do but we have made such great improvements that would not have been achievable if it were not for the BRT team. We are now developing the Resilience Hub which means having equipment to respond to emergencies effectively, and volunteers are trained and prepared with a plan of action for the way ahead. 

Sustainable City Resilience

We look forward to continued communications and collaboration with the community with Building Resilience Together in Havering; our team, volunteers and partners, continue to to formalise the Resilience Hub and to fully include the voluntary sector in our plans. We are developing training programmes to maintain relevant information for Havering and its communities.  With these continued commitments, and hearing what they have to say, we will help shape the way forward to feel better connected to the communities that need the resilience hub most.  If and when a crisis happens we all will feel prepared, know our roles, where to go, what to do – working collectively for greater outcomes.