Lesson 6 – How can you connect with resilience partners?

Resilience is everyone’s business.

It is important that we all see Scotland's resilience as our shared responsibility. We can all play a part in supporting the safety and well-being of our neighbours and communities, whether we live in remote and rural locations or in our towns and cities. Individuals, communities, emergency services and the wider public sector, including Scottish Government, as well as voluntary organisations and businesses, all have their part to play in making Scotland safe and secure.

The way that the voluntary and community sectors responded to COVID‑19, along with experiences and lessons learned from the virus, severe weather and other impactful events, has shown how vital it is to ensure the voluntary and community sectors have a strong voice within the resilience partnerships.

Here are some ways you can connect with resilience partners.

Community groups working on local emergency resilience

Connect with your Local Authority’s emergency planning team and your local Third Sector Interface. They are key members of the Local Resilience Partnerships.

Each Local Authority may have different arrangements to connect with communities on emergency issues, for example it could be a local area or ward manager, a communities team or a central emergency resilience team.

Voluntary sector organisations who support people in times of emergency

Connect with your local Third Sector Interface and the Local Authority’s emergency planning team. They are key members of the Local Resilience Partnerships. If your organisation is regional or national, then there are national arrangements to bring together a very broad range of voluntary and community sector organisations alongside Scottish Government policy and statutory resilience partners. Contact the Ready Scotland team to find out more.

Social enterprises or local businesses who want to support their community

Supporting your community through challenging times isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also a better way of doing business that helps you build stronger social connections with the community you serve.

Build your connections with your local community through the community council, local councillors and your local authority to find out how they are supporting businesses in the community.

For more information read our guidance on how your business can support your local community.