#LRFPeople: Keith Edge, British Red Cross

A strong community response to emergency situations has become more and more important in recent years.

Increasing incidents of floods, storms and wildfires have caused major problems in several local areas and the need for communities to be able to plan for, respond to, and recover from such events has never been more vital.

One person who is helping Lancashire’s communities to do just that is Keith Edge.

Keith is the Emergency Response Officer covering the county on behalf of the British Red Cross and he also acts as the Co-Chair of the Lancashire Resilience Forum’s Community Resilience Group which aims to encourage voluntary, local and faith groups to come together to support communities in times of need.

Keith, our latest #LRFPeople subject, has worked for the British Red Cross since 2016 and took on the Emergency Response role in 2020. It is one which has given him insight into how volunteers and community groups can play a vital role in helping to build resilience.

A Southport resident, Keith saw the power of a united community this time last year when three young girls were tragically killed at a dance class in the town.

He says the day itself, and the subsequent response, highlighted the “worst and the best of human behaviour’’ with the community’s heartfelt response to the tragedy and to the disorder that followed, an example of what can be achieved when a community works together.

He said: “Sefton Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) has an excellent network of community groups which they can pull in when needed and they helped bring the people of Southport together. The community response, coordinated by the CVS, showed just how well people can join together in unity at crucial times.”

Talking about his day-to-day role Keith says: “It is definitely a varied, challenging but enjoyable job. I am one of a dozen Red Cross staff members across the North of England who deal with Crisis Response Community Resilience operations for the organisation, linking the Red Cross, the Lancashire Resilience Forum and other partners including emergency services and other voluntary agencies.

“We have a team of volunteers with our main area of response being for major emergencies such as providing support at rest centres, offering welfare checks in person and over the phone to vulnerable people and also providing humanitarian support to those who face such problems as a domestic fire or flood.

“The service we provide is focused on emotional support, empathy and welfare and providing help with clothing and contacting landlords, insurance companies or councils for emergency housing help and in some circumstances cash assistance to help tide people over until they get access to their normal funds.’’

He added: “Community resilience is important to the LRF, and society as a whole. It is certainly becoming a key point of Government planning with issues such as climate change, increasing weather extremes meaning that in the future there will be a much larger role for community groups to respond locally.

“A resilient community is one which has prepared to withstand a shock and then recover from it. It’s the whole cycle of preparing, responding and recovering which is important and this is an area which the British Red Cross are supporting the LRF in developing.

“In Lancashire we are on a journey in terms of community resilience.

“We have some great examples of communities building really strong resilience strategies and we want to build on that. Our key focus now is to map out and assess the organisations such as flood action groups, that we currently have in the county.

“We are looking to find out who they are, what they are doing, what their aims are, what can they share with each other and what, if any, support they need. It’s an exciting project because we are raising the profile of resilience in our communities and knitting together what is out there and what can be achieved.’’