Community engagement
Effective engagement and liaison with affected communities is significant in determining the success of response and recovery. The establishment of a Community Recovery/Liaison Group can promote closer working between responders and those affected. It is also important that, where appropriate, the community should be enabled to determine and undertake its own recovery.
The public will accept and make allowances for a period of disruption for a short time. Responders will be under pressure to restore any services interrupted by the incident as quickly as possible. Expectations will rise as time progresses and responders will need to demonstrate that they are coping and in doing so build public confidence.
A public meeting should be considered at an early stage. Having separate meetings for affected residents and businesses can be particularly useful, bearing in mind their differing information requirements. Any meeting should be as structured as possible and include presentations on the current situation. It should involve senior representatives from all the agencies involved, able to answer questions authoritatively. These senior representatives would preferably be involved in the RP response and be clear about the agreed multi-agency strategy, action plan (if established) and public information messages. A public meeting can allow people to air their concerns and opinions, help them to come to terms with the consequences of the emergency and allow them to identify their priorities for recovery. Depending on the nature of the incident, the inclusion of representatives from local faith communities and other relevant groups can often be a key link to minority groups, especially where there are language difficulties and sensitivity issues.
One effective method for engaging with the community during recovery is establishing humanitarian assistance centres (HACs) or other drop-in centres to allow the public access to information and assistance on the whole range of problems that they may be experiencing. These may be based in the communities that have been affected and/or where residents have been relocated. Consideration might be given to the use of mobile units if other facilities are rendered unusable. In a wide-area incident, facilities in a central location easily accessible by public transport might be established. Staff from a range of different agencies should be available (locally or by dedicated contact) to answer questions and advise. The centres should remain in close contact with sub-groups dealing with specific issues. It is important to ensure that an approach to any member of the RP, at any place, can be directed to those most able to respond.
See the Preparing Scotland guidance on caring for people affected by emergencies for more information on HACs.
Category 1 responders have many local partnerships dealing with a variety of matters of community interest. Local groups might deal with matters such as community planning, community safety, community health, sport and leisure or a wide variety of other topics. They will have established local networks and processes that can be utilised to support recovery by informing, advising and canvassing community opinion.
Ad-hoc neighbourhood forums or groups may be established to enable engagement with discrete parts of the community and reflect their particular characteristics and social structures. Neighbourhoods could choose their own natural leaders to represent their interests.
The affected community’s elected representatives have a role as a conduit for information between their communities and local responders. As civic leaders, they are involved with many aspects of community life and can provide a focus for gathering community concerns, as well as providing a mechanism for responders to provide information for the public. Therefore, their inclusion in community initiatives is important.