Scottish Government holds Scottish Resilient Communities Conference 

CRJ was invited to attend the annual Scottish Resilient Communities Conference that was held in Glasgow on 27 October 2017. Almost 200 delegates were in attendance, including representatives from the Scottish Goverenment Resilience Division, emergency response organisations, NGOs, the private sector and, most importantly, representatives from a variety of communities throughout Scotland where local volunteer community resilience teams have been established.

The agenda on the day included the following presentations;

• 'Strong and Resilient Communities' - the keynote address provided by Professor Carol Tannahill, Chief Social Policy Advisor to the Scottish Government
• 'Working in the space between statutory responders and the communities' - a very powerful presentation on the role of the British Red Cross in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire in London - Robert Coburn, Emergency Response Operations Manager, British Red Cross
• 'Placing values and ethics at the heart of critical decision making' - Ewan Stewart from the Care Inspectorate
• 'A positive narrative - working with the media to promote effective community response and recovery' - Andrew Cassell, former BBC journalist and now a Media Consultant.

During the afternoon workshops, a variety of topics were covered, including;

• Community Resilience Evaluation Toolkit
• Scottish Flood Forum
• The Lifelines Project (support for emergency responders)
• Voluntary Sector Integration Framework
• Fast Time Communications
• Community Emergency Planning
• Scottish Boirders Resilient Communities Initiative

For more information about the Scottish Government Resilience Division and theie work on Cummunity Resilience, visit their website Ready Scotland