Barnham & Eastergate Parish- Community Resilience Team

We are reinforcing and expanding the existing local volunteer network and its capacities to provide a significant “self-help” capability within the Parish.  We hope that you will help us by coming forward to join our band of public-spirited volunteers.

The existing organisation is being  streamlined/improved to form three teams for the following roles:

1. An “Inside” team to open our village halls, and possibly other buildings, as “Safe refuges”, offering warmth and safety, food and accommodation, for people/families (and their pets) who have had to leave their homes.
2. An “Outside” team to help maintain communications (e.g. clearing roads) -assisting householders to protect their properties with sandbags, tarpaulins- or to help people to the Safe Refuges.
3. A “Recovery” team to provide longer-term help and advice in the aftermath with e.g. insurance claims, finding building contractors, skips, alternative accommodation.

To make sure that our volunteers are equipped and confident/competent for these tasks, we will be running training courses and live practices, purchasing more equipment and PPE, and involving outside organisations to work with us and our volunteers. To start with we will run short basic First Aid courses, with a target of a hundred attendees.