|
Oak Bay: Building a Disaster Resilient Community
Sonja Ruthe, Chair, Oak Bay Community Resilience Team
Like many Emergency Programs and ESS Teams, we face challenges related to recruitment,
retention and sustainability as well as how to get our community to ‘buy-in’ to emergency
preparedness. Oak Bay has had flush and lean ESS, Communications & SAR Teams as well as
an active Neighborhood Program. A focus for Oak Bay, like most other municipalities, is
to develop a Recovery Plan that incorporates and builds upon our Response Plan, uses the
expertise of our Emergency Program teams and works with the ‘natural’ communities that
already exist. With the support of Mayor Causton and our Council and under the direction
of Deputy Chief Gerry Adam, Deputy Emergency Coordinator, Oak Bay agreed to be a pilot for
the Red Cross Community Resilience Project.
The Oak Bay Community Resilience Team developed over several months with input from
staff and volunteers with Red Cross, the Emergency Program and ESS. Our expanded
collaborative includes expertise in recovery, communications, IT and seniors. We
are developing our partnership with the police and Block Watch and in addition to
Council, we have liaisons with many of our churches, some of our schools and other
community interest groups. We value the expertise and experience of other ESS and
Emergency Program Teams and encourage their attendance at our working group meetings
to share ideas and strategies. Our Team has identified priorities and begun the
process of engaging and mobilizing our community and its various groups to be better
prepared for a major emergency.
Community Resilience as a Framework
The principles of Community Resilience have been recognized as a goal for humanitarian
organizations and community development throughout the world. It is an example of
best practices. Our Team believes that our strength and resilience is in our citizens
and those organizations that address their needs. A resilient community is one that
is active pre-disaster to meet its present needs, takes community ownership and
works collaboratively in the assessment, planning and development of a recovery
plan. It expands its capacity through principles such as community collaboration,
respecting community culture and providing timely and reliable information. It builds
upon those systems already in place and recognizes the strengths and resources of
‘natural’ communities such as the churches, schools, senior’s centers and other
community groups.
These ‘communities’ already possess a wide range of skills and expertise, have information
systems in place, can identify those who are most vulnerable and have ongoing relationships
with each other. They will naturally become a place of refuge for their own constituents
as well as the surrounding geographical neighborhood in the event of an emergency.
Our role is to help them assess their own capacity for recovery, work out roles
and responsibilities as part of the Recovery Plan and provide them with training,
information and support to fill any gaps identified.
We believe that the backbone of our community’s physical, emotional, economic and
spiritual recovery from a major disaster will be ‘neighbors helping neighbors’ and
getting our Municipality and businesses up and running. Therefore, revitalizing
a Neighborhood Program, encompassing all aspects of our community, as well as pre-disaster
Business Continuity planning, are key.
Steps to Engage our Community
In January, we hosted a community meeting, attended by our Mayor, Council, and over
50 people who represented various community groups, to begin to explore the strengths
and capacities and needs and vulnerabilities of Oak Bay. The information gained
will become a working document and part of our Recovery Plan. However, the connections
and relationships that were established and fostered that evening have become our
community’s greatest asset and the foundation from which we work. In addition, it
raised public awareness and has created an energetic ‘buzz’ within our community.
We now host monthly Public Information Sessions. Guest speakers present on a wide
range of topics to engage a broader audience.
We developed a Communication Strategy to inform our community of EP events pre-disaster
and provide them with timely and reliable information in the event of a disaster.
This is in addition to the already established communication systems in place.
In March, we partnered with the Oak Bay Green Committee to present Climate Change:
An Inconvenient Truth- and the Opportunity. Deputy Chief Adam was one of 6 panelists
and spoke on the consequences of extreme weather systems
We have an expanding email distribution list that receives weekly updates on information
related to the OBEP. Many then send it out to their constituents. We now reach over
1,000 people through this alone. Information also gets posted on bulletin boards,
in church bulletins and community newsletters. As a result, there has been an increase
in attendance at our Public Information Sessions, public awareness has increased
exponentially, leadership and support volunteers are stepping forward and our current
ESS and EP Team members are active volunteers at our events.
The Oak Bay Community Resilience Team and its expanded community collaborative will
continue to work on the initiatives that have been started. As individuals and groups
take ownership and become active partners in the assessment, planning and development
of our Neighborhood Program and recovery planning, our capacity increases and sustainability
becomes much more robust.
|