Isle of Ely Resiliency

The Isle of Ely Resilient Community Group - a working title subject to change in the future - is a small group of volunteers formed in January 2026 with an interest in helping make our local communities more resilient in the face of risks, whatever they might be. We focus on achievable goals to mitigate practical short term risk such as floods, power outages, another pandemic or similar exigencies such as those outlined in the Government's National Risk Register.

Our intent is to draw upon practical experience and wisdom from similar groups elsewhere in the UK or wider afield and to provide guidance, encouragement and advocacy to other groups and statutory bodies alike who can help in practical terms when our communities have a crisis or emergency. Our focus on practical things that can be done, we have no intention of being only a talking shop, nor of addressing nebulous future risks that may or may not eventually turn in right-now risks.

In broad terms we see our remit as getting everyone to prepare and plan; this is likely to be through encouraging other individual, social, voluntary and statutory bodies to take practical steps to increase their own resilence and thus increase the overall resilience of our community. We don't think it's practical to have a stand-alone 'emergency' group - that will never be enough when the situation calls for hundreds of helping hands and well-planned resources to be deployed. Instead, by showing how to do it, we want to help everyone be better prepared.

We are currently developing guidance for families and individuals on the basis that to be able to help in an emergency, you musn't yourself be worried about your own or your family's situation: to be part of the solution, you musn't be part of the problem. After that, we'll produce further practical guides for the various existing groups we find as we identify them and provide guides and encouragement to be prepared. We know of other similar initiatives in the country and plan to reach out to them, share the best of what we find and try to be a beacon of how to do it for others too. As just two examples, we already have good links with the St Ives Flood Action Group and Cambridgeshire Raynet who provide emergency communications - one of our members also actively liaises with the statutory Cambridge and Peterborough Local Resilence Forum.

If this is something that intrigues you, please send email to info @ isleofely.resiliencyforum.org (without the spaces). We communicate through a mix of whatsapp, email and in-person meetings - the latter so far being in Ely's Piccolo Lounge when it's not too busy!