For the second year running a two day conference on community resilience will be held at Lansdown near Bath in October, in preparation for natural or manmade disasters.
‘Resilient Communities II’ is being organised by Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS), The Schumacher Institute and in partnership with Avon & Somerset Local Resilience Forum and Coventry University to explore how communities can build social cohesion to prepare for natural or manmade disasters.
During testing times, if a shared identity and common purpose is identified the community can move forward together rather than fall apart.
Speakers from organisations including the police, fire and rescue service, voluntary sector, the Environment Agency, local authorities, community representatives and academics will take part in the conference at the South West Command Development Centre in Lansdown near Bath.
Taking place on Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th October, the conference will include talks and workshops that will explore what community resilience is, what it could be and how it can be built.
The event will offer attendees the chance to hear about real-life experiences, best practice and tools for building community resilience in preparation for change.
It will also explore global challenges and the impact both locally and nationally to demonstrate the importance of top down planning with grass roots initiatives.
Rob Davis, Assistant Chief Fire Officer at Avon Fire & Rescue Service, who will be speaking at the event said: “Our aim is to work with communities to explore how we can make them more resilient to future shocks and stresses and for more communities to engage within the community resilience arena with the support of statutory organisations such as the fire and rescue service.
“Community resilience means many things to many people but we know that the long and short term impacts of an incident can be limited by effective preparation.
“This conference will pull together a wide range of views and experiences to help the many interested parties in their future planning.”
The conference aims to build on the success of last year’s event. Kim Dowsett, Climate Change Advisor at the Environment Agency explained: “The first conference covered a wide range of topics and was a great place to meet people from very different backgrounds but all keen to learn about resilience and what we are going to have to cope with in the future.”
Tickets are priced at £30 per day (Wednesday 5th or Thursday 6th) or £50 for both days.
Ticket includes refreshments and lunch.
A full programme, including a list of speakers and workshops is available at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/resilient-communities-ii-tickets-25126111877?aff=eac2.