Taking a local approach to national emergency preparedness

When the National Emergencies Trust was launched in 2019 it was in direct response to learnings from the tragic events of 2017, including the Grenfell Tower fire, and terror attacks in London and Manchester. A key insight across all those disasters was the valuable role that local grassroots groups can play during national emergencies.

Small charities and groups based near the site of an emergency can often be fastest to respond to the unthinkable and can do so with the benefit of valuable local knowledge and connections. A prime example of this was in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy when the local mosque, the Al-Manaar Centre, acted as a lifeline to survivors, offering water, food, clothing and essentials.

But history shows us that one of the challenges that grassroots groups face during domestic disasters is that they are often too busy helping those affected to raise the additional funds or find the additional resources they need to cope with the sudden surge in demand. Meanwhile, larger charities and groups playing a less hands-on role may find themselves better equipped to fundraise.

This important insight is one of the reasons why the Charities Commission for England and Wales recommended a new, independent charity be set up that could work collaboratively with other charities and groups in the aftermath of emergencies. The National Emergencies Trust was founded to raise and distribute funds fairly after disasters, including by giving priority to local groups making a difference to people’s lives on the ground.

In fact, we will always fund local first during emergencies, working collaboratively with community foundations across the UK because they can help us to get vital funding out to grassroots projects through their extensive local networks. There are 44 foundations across England alone, as well as one in each of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

One of our key aims at the Trust is to make friends before we need them. It’s why outside of emergencies we work closely with our community foundation partners in all four nations to ensure that we understand how one another works and can plan out our respective roles during disasters. Following our work together responding to the pandemic, we now have agreements in place with each community foundation in the UK.

Operations Director, Helen Killingley, recently visited Northamptonshire Community Foundation to host a workshop on emergency preparedness. This focused on building on learnings from past UK emergencies, including our own Coronavirus Appeal, so that our collective teams felt better able to respond effectively, and quickly, in the future should something happen in that region or UK-wide. Their whole team benefitted from the workshop, including two trustees, one of which is a designated emergency liaison representative who helps to champion resilience and preparedness.

Dean Jones, Head of Giving & Development at Northamptonshire Community Foundation described the session as “truly engaging”:

You can read more about the session on the Northamptonshire Community Foundation website (opens in a new tab).

If you’re an accredited community foundation and are interested in how you can be better prepared for major emergencies, contact us (opens in a new tab) to book a training session today and join our upcoming community foundation webinar.