#VillageHallsWeek Resource - Local emergency? How your village hall fits in

Emergency in the community

Some villages have community resilience plans, which often use their village hall as a "muster point" in emergencies, or even for emergency shelter.  It is good practice to consider developing a plan even if you think your community is not likely to be at risk from events such as flooding.  How could your village hall help? And, if it was the emergency meeting point or providing emergency shelter, do you have the systems in place to manage this.

Where should you start?

In our article, "In case of emergency – Community Resilience Plans" we talk about some of the things your community might need to think about when creating a community resilience plan, and as a village hall, you can see just what sort of solutions you might be able to offer.  

Once you know what you can offer it is important to set out guidance for how people can get this support.  For example, if your plan is to gather at the village hall in an emergency, how do people let the village hall keyholder know to unlock the premises? How do they know who the keyholder is?  

Other support

Of course, our Development Team is able to help you to develop a community resilience plan or policies and processes that support one, but support is also available from the Norfolk Resilience Forum.  

The Norfolk Resilience Forum have created Norfolk Prepared, a free app that helps people to know what to do before, during and after an emergency.

The app will send the latest live emergency warnings and step-by-step advice.  It also offers tips on preparing for certain risks, as well as practical advice on creating an emergency kit, business continuity plan or a community emergency plan.  You can also send "I'm safe" notifications to friends and family during an emergency.  For more information please click here.