Campaign to improve resilience to emergencies now in its eighth year #30days30waysuk

Monday, 5 September 2022 23:33

Experience of past emergencies shows that those who prepare, recover sooner, reduce the burden on the emergency services, and are in a better position to help others.

Joanne Maddams, Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Manager for West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) said: “When people talk about emergencies our minds tend to turn to the London bombings, tsunamis or other global catastrophes.

"But being prepared isn’t just for those headline-grabbing incidents. Power cuts, water main bursts, gas leaks, transport strikes, road closures...we experience a variety of inconveniences every day.

"Taking few steps to prepare will help not only with those 'everyday emergencies' but also with far less likely incidents."

The campaign will be taking place all over the UK, with local resilience partners such as the emergency services, local authorities, utilities and health, taking part to put a local touch to 30 key messages throughout September.

People across the UK are urged to think about the simple actions that will help keep their families safe in larger scale emergencies as well as the importance of checking on elderly and vulnerable neighbours.

The aim is to raise awareness and build capacities and capabilities from the ground up for better individual and community preparedness and resilience.

"We are really excited about this edition of the #30days30waysUK campaign on social media,” Joanne said. ‘’Along with colleagues from across the UK we have put together an excellent ‘September is Preparedness Month 2022’ programme with key messages, resources and fun, engaging challenges for people to participate in and share on social media and off-line."

Background:

Established in 2015, 30days30waysUK.org.uk is a professional volunteer network consisting of practitioners, academics, emergency responders and agencies, voluntary sector and some government agencies. We're not a registered charity precisely so that the approach is freely transferable to other regions worldwide with minimal hurdles or monetary investment. Please look at 2021 annual report for more information.

The Media can take part by supporting the campaign on a daily or weekly basis with themes, sharing the daily messages and encouraging the general public to do so too. The local media can talk to their local responders around the daily challenges.

For examples of last year’s campaign go to the twitter list.