Before the next Village Hall Committee meeting, on Jan 10, 2017, Joanne Beaver has arranged for Alison Flemming, from the Prepared Citizen Initiative of  LLR Prepared (Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland) to come and give a presentation and briefing about how the Prepared Citizen initiative would work in a small village. This will be open to any interested resident, not just the Village Hall Committee and the Parish Council.

The meeting will start 30 minutes earlier than the normal Village Hall Committee at 7pm and include time for any questions.

Community Resilience is a central government initiative that resulted following Sir Michael Pitt’s recommendation in his 2008 report into the previous year’s major floods, that the Government “… should establish a programme to support and encourage individuals and communities to be better prepared and more self reliant during emergencies, allowing the authorities to focus on those areas and people in greatest need”. It encourages individuals and communities to place themselves in a position to help themselves in times of trouble when the Emergency Services might be unable to reach them quickly. There are no statutory responsibilities placed on organisations to undertake this work, but LLR Prepared is committed to helping communities plan and prepare in order to make our region as resilient as it can be.

LLR Prepared will be inviting people who are already volunteers to sign up as Prepared Citizens. Invitations will be sent on our behalf by the volunteering organisations that agree to participate.

What is a Prepared Citizen? Someone who agrees they would be willing to participate if a community response needs to be organised in their community AND who signs up to our Alerting System so they can receive call out messages.

What might a Prepared Citizen be expected to do? Participate in a community response team, help to identify residents who require additional support, perhaps help to run a rest centre for evacuated families, provide catering for those without gas and electricity, clear snow and debris – many potential activities depending on the nature of the incident BUT NONE that would place them at personal risk.