Christmas floods – what we would have done in 2017
Neil Tappin
I am a business owner and a Mental health first aider and advocate, with over 30 years of lived experience of Mental wellbeing issues ,creating and supporting people locally through @menfulness and the wider community.
Christmas floods – what we would have done in 2017
This time last year we were clearing up the city after the devastating floods on Boxing Day. Hundreds of homes and businesses were affected and even now, many lives have not returned to normal.
One positive story which emerged from the flooding was the amount of people who wanted to help, whether in volunteering their time and skills or making financial contributions. York CVS has been working with other voluntary and statutory organisations throughout 2016 to make sure that if there is another flood, or any major incident in the city, there is an effective response from volunteers.
York CVS now has a team of individual and business volunteers registered on a database who are willing to be called as soon as a major incident occurs, night or day. We have an emergency phone which the major incident team at the City of York Council will call if they need volunteers. Once alerted, the Priory Street Centre will become a hub for all volunteering activity. Here, the emergency teams can direct volunteers to wherever they are needed and determine if any specialist skills are needed. Volunteers have access to training in key skills from filling sandbags to first aid or health and safety.
The Ready for Anything team will also contact specialist groups across the city if there is an incident. These include organisations such as Age UK or York Mind, who have volunteers trained to deal with victims who may be particularly vulnerable. Others, such as Red Cross and Rubicon, are specialists in dealing with the aftermath of a major incident; or the Community Furniture Store who offer practical help to get homes back to normal.
We have volunteers from across the whole city, including businesses who can offer support to other businesses, following an incident or emergency. Business volunteers are also able to supply large numbers of volunteers, storage facilities, supplies and equipment.
York CVS was, of course, very happy that there was no call for our services this Christmas but we will continue to build Ready for Anything in 2017. We want to build our capacity and skills and spend more time working directly with communities to establish their own emergency plans.
We always welcome new volunteers, our only requirement is a friendly face and the ability to make tea, although of course we welcome any other skills and experience! For more information, please visit our Ready for Anything page, or email us on [email protected]