The role of Salford CVS in an emergency
In an emergency in Salford, such as flooding, a terror threat or threat to welfare, for example the COVID pandemic, Salford CVS, on behalf of Salford City Council, organises and coordinates VCSE organisations and volunteers to support residents affected. This might include:
- Setting up safe spaces for people to stay if they can't go home
- Helping people to clean up afterwards
- Working with emergency services to keep everyone safe
We also work closely with Salford’s Local Resilience Forum to help plan ahead and be ready for emergencies.
How you can get involved as an individual or organisation
Emergency volunteers
We have a dedicated team of volunteers ready to respond to an emergency.
If you wish to find out more about volunteering, see our emergency volunteering page
VCSE (including the community work of faith organisations) emergency response organisation
Organisations can help in lots of ways, including:
- Providing a physical space such as a community hall for using during emergencies, either as shelter for displaced people or as a place from which to mobilise volunteers;
- Providing staff or volunteer support to help manage situations as they develop. This could include anything from making cups of tea for displaced people, helping register people at reception centres, to door-knocking around an area that needs to be evacuated;
- Providing specialist services. This could include anything from first aid, transport, food distribution, mental health support, and fostering displaced animals, depending on the situation. It may also involve drawing on cultural competency and an understanding of different communities—helping to ensure support is inclusive, respectful, and accessible, and building connections with people through shared language, culture, or identity where possible.
VCSE Trusted Voices network
In an emergency it is important to get good-quality, trusted information out to the public to avoid misinformation and panic. Our Trusted Voices Network supports any emergency response by sharing key messages through your organisation’s networks to help keep communities resilient in Salford. In an emergency situation the Trusted Voices co-ordinator would get in touch with key messages around public safety to share through your networks; whether through social media, newsletters, personal conversations or through other means. We might also be in touch in non-emergency situations to share things like public health information.
Salford's Local Resilience Forum
Local resilience forums are partnerships of organisations working towards societal resilience which respond to emergencies within the local area and help manage recovery efforts. The VCSE Sector Sub-group of the Salford Local Resilience Forum aims to maximise the VCSE and Faith sector’s contribution to resilience planning, response and recovery through establishing good communication, training, and strengthening relationships across the sector.
Membership is open to all VCSE organisations with an operating capability and remit that covers Salford, who are willing to act as VCSE Responders in an emergency. Acting as a responder organisation might include providing a physical space for volunteers to mobilise from, providing staff or volunteer support, or specialist services such as first aid, food distribution, or mental health support.
For more information on any of the above, please contact Anna Rahilly