Swale communities invited to join emergency preparedness pilot

A new pilot project is underway in Swale to help residents, local councils and community groups prepare for emergencies such as flooding, severe weather and power outages.

The Strengthening Preparedness Together in Swale initiative offers free online and in-person training to build skills, confidence and local resilience. By working together, communities can reduce the impact of emergencies and recover faster.

Swale was chosen for this pilot because it faces some of the highest flood risks in Kent and includes areas that can become isolated during severe weather. Past incidents such as the major water outage on the Isle of Sheppey in 2022 and the Eastchurch cliff collapse in 2020 highlight the importance of being prepared.

Training sessions run from January to March and cover topics including flood volunteering, winter preparedness, storm preparedness, preparing for utility outages and community emergency planning.

A special flood volunteer training event will take place on 20 January at Minster-on-Sea Parish Council, supported by the Environment Agency and Swale Borough Council.

Local councils and community groups are encouraged to take part and share these opportunities with their networks.

The involvement of borough, parish and town councils is central to the project’s success, alongside the engagement of resident volunteers. The initiative builds on existing relationships with Swale’s community and voluntary sector networks and aims to strengthen local resilience planning by encouraging wider participation at a community level.

The Kent Resilience Team’s co-ordinator for this project, Sacha Taylor, said: “By working together, we can help communities equip themselves with the skills, knowledge and plans they need to help support themselves in times of emergencies.”

“The successes and valuable learning from this hyper-local innovative approach to community resilience in Swale can be potentially taken forward into other areas of Kent and Medway, or nationally, that face similar challenges.”

Mike Anthony Scaling and Growth Manager for Communities Prepared said: "We are at an exciting crossroads where we are currently taking Communities Prepared national programme and all its resources and applying this to local contexts to support communities in Swale."

“We are delighted to partner with the Kent Resilience Team, who know the context and have the connections at place, together we feel confident we can make a positive impact for the communities in Swale and hopefully, in the long term to more communities in Kent.’

Swale residents can find more information on the training available and register for the sessions on the Communities Prepared website here

Further training sessions are set to run through to June 2026 and will continue to be shaped by feedback and the needs of local communities as they develop their local resilience plans.

Background information

Communities Prepared is Groundwork South’s unique community resilience initiative. With nearly a decade of experience the project supports diverse communities across England to better prepare for, respond to and recover from crises and emergencies, including the impacts of climate change (e.g. wildfires & flooding). It provides training and resources for community emergency volunteers, using a multi-hazard approach to long-term resilience and creating a society in which everyone has a role in growing community resilience.

The programme has previously worked successfully with Kent Resilience Forum Partners (KMRF) and with local resilience forums across the country.

Key KMRF partners involved in the Strengthening Preparedness Together in Swale pilot project include Swale Borough Council, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, Kent County Council, the Environment Agency and the Kent Association of Local Councils (KALC).

More information about the KMRF and the Kent Resilience Team can be found here.

For more information or to find out how to get involved, email KRFcommunityresilience@kent.fire-uk.org