Building Community Resilience

Key Lessons

• It was important for MLT to visit the islands to see how they function day to day in person. This allowed managers to gather information so they could build appropriate plans for each island’s needs. 
• Speaking directly to island residents rather than working with questionnaires, for example,  was also very important because a richer level of detail could be obtained to understand the resident’s experiences living on the islands and what they knew about emergency resilience.
• It was recognised as important that MLT and the emergency services challenged any underlying biases about people choosing to live in remote locations, such as the islands. In the past, frustrations have been expressed about people living on the islands, where access to emergency services can be more complicated. MLT wanted to emphasise that everyone has the right to choose where they live and should not feel stigmatised for that choice.
• Drawing on the Community Involvement and Development Officers’ knowledge of the islands and their connections with residents was vital for making initial contact and starting conversations about resilience. The islanders’ trust in the officers helped to ease this process

Feeding Back the Results

Ahead of the plans being complete, there have been positive responses and outcomes as a result of engaging with the island communities. In Foula, for example, the fire service was able to visit people’s homes and fit smoke detectors in buildings. Overall, it is important that the partnership does not over commit to what can be achieved when creating the plans but they must make sure they create something that is effective, safe, and sustainable for both the island communities and the services.