Community resilience strategy for London

On 9 March 2018, I attended a workshop - at the London Guildhall - to inform a community resilience strategy for London. The London Community Resilience Workshop was run by the London Resilience Partnership, in collaboration with the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Public Health England (London). The workshop was attended by resilience and community engagement people from London boroughs, lots of voluntary and community sector (VCS) groups (including many faith groups), and government departments (such as the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office).

The aim of the workshop was to inform the developmental work on community resilience of the London Resilience Partnership, and especially its Community Resilience Steering Group. In particular, there were workshop sessions on the meaning or definition of community resilience, examples of good practice and immediate opportunities for greater collaborative working.

From my perspective, it is fantastic that these London authorities are working together on community resilience. My own work on Urban Heat shows that there is great potential in statutory bodies working on community resilience (and resilience) with the voluntary and community sector (VCS), local retailers and businesses, and local residents and workers. I am keen to stay involved with this process to help maximise the potential of the London community resilience strategy.

Contacts and resources

For more information about the community resilience strategy for London, you can contact Tom Brady at the London Resilience Partnership:    LondonResilience@london-fire.gov.uk.

What is community resilience?: You can read more about what I think community resilience should or could mean here.

You can read more about Urban Heat, an action research project on community resilience that I ran, here.

You can read the Cabinet Office materials on community resilience here.