Social connections are key at city workshop

Social connections are crucial when we’re trying to reach as many people as possible in our communities – so it’s no surprise that this was a recurring theme during a Risk Ready resilience workshop in Leicester.

The Risk Ready team was delighted to meet local community leaders attending the City Mayor’s Community Forum to explain more about our Risk Ready resilience programme.

During the session, we explored how the programme can help communities to build on their existing strengths and identify local challenges when it comes to dealing with risks, like cyber attacks, utility outages or another pandemic.

We also discussed how Risk Ready can help turn awareness into action, drawing on the wealth of local knowledge, resources and connections within our communities to strengthen preparedness and resilience for all.

These actions could be something as simple as sharing preparedness messaging through existing Whatsapp groups and community settings, or developing more accessible resources to allow more people to understand, and act on, them.

Conversations like this one at City Hall are vital to raise awareness of local risks and the simple steps we can all take to be better prepared. By working together, we can harness the power of communities and nurture a more inclusive and collaborative approach to emergency preparedness, empowering people to act faster and recover more quickly in the event of an incident.

Gino Harris, Resilience Manager, Leicester City Council

Gino added: "We covered a lot of ground in one night. Now we’re excited to see where the conversation takes us on our journey to build stronger, better prepared and more resilient communities across our city."

Want to get involved? Join the conversation or find out more about our free Risk Ready programme (including workshops, webinars, toolkits and tailored support).