What is the Community Assistance Team?
Who are we?
What do we do?
How it works
Selection criteria
Submit an Expression of Interest
Questions?
The Community Assistance Team is a pilot project designed to assist communities in British Columbia in increasing their disaster resilience by providing support with disaster response and preparedness planning and supplementing emergency response activities.
The goal of this community-led project is to support local communities in strengthening their resilience through disaster preparedness and response planning, while complementing existing British Columbia emergency management processes.
Who are we?
The Red Cross Community Assistance Team is made up of members who have a comprehensive understanding of emergency management concepts and processes coupled with diverse backgrounds in operations, planning and strategic engagement.
In addition, Red Cross Community Advisors in British Columbia have experience working at the local, regional, and provincial levels of emergency management.
What do we do?
The Community Assistance Team helps strengthen emergency management capacity in local communities.
We partner with select communities to complete emergency management-related projects that the communities themselves identify will help to strengthen their local capacity and resilience to respond to and prepare for emergencies and disaster events.
This pilot project is community-led.
Communities identify their needs, priorities, and where they need support. Through collaboration with the Community Assistance Team, a community project is identified, and a plan is developed, with the guidance and expertise of the Community Assistance Team.
The Community Assistance Team is designed to complement, not duplicate, existing assessment processes and disaster planning in British Columbia.
How it works
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Step 1: Communities submit an Expression of Interest, informing the Community Assistance Team that they are interested in potentially being selected to participate in the project. |
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Step 2: Submissions are reviewed by the Community Assistance Team. All communities will be contacted with the results of their submission. |
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Step 3: The Community Assistance Team conducts an in-depth discussion with communities that meet the selection criteria. This provides an opportunity to assess the community’s needs in greater detail and for the community to share best practices from previous emergency responses and some of the challenges they face. |
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Step 4: Using the selection criteria, a shortlist of submissions is created. A review panel consisting of Red Cross personnel, including senior leadership, selects communities to participate in the pilot project. Agreements are signed between the selected communities and the Community Assistance Team outlining the proposed projects, roles and responsibilities, timelines, and next steps. |
Selection criteria
We are looking for communities that are committed to increasing their resilience to prepare for and respond to emergencies.
Priority is being given to remote, rural, and Indigenous communities.
Communities are also selected based on criteria that includes:
- Experience with repeated emergencies;
- Having the capacity at the community level to work with the Community Assistance Team to complete the project; and
- Community vulnerabilities, hazards, and risks.
Communities are involved in every step of the project, working collaboratively with the Community Assistance Team to complete community-identified projects which are flexible, adaptable, and tailored to their specific needs.
Projects identified by communities must focus on building emergency management capacity at the local level. Projects typically last between four months to one year depending on the complexity, scope and desired deliverables of the project.
Submit an Expression of Interest
Communities that are interested in strengthening their emergency management processes are invited to submit an Expression of Interest to the Community Assistance Team.
This
form is the first step in the community selection process.
Expressions of Interest are being accepted between
March 13, 2023, and April 14, 2023. You can find the form
here or email us at
communityassistance@redcross.ca.
Once an Expression of Interest has been received, a member of the Community Assistance Team will follow up directly with your community to review your submission and, if your community meets the criteria, to collaborate on a more in-depth assessment to identify your community’s needs and priorities.
Communities selected to participate will be announced in June 2023 to participate in this pilot project in 2023. The community partnership projects will start early in the fall of 2023 and run through to spring 2024.
Questions?
Email us at
communityassistance@redcross.ca to connect with a member of the Community Assistance Team. This email is monitored during business hours, Monday to Friday.
Or perhaps our
Frequently Asked Questions can help.