In the first blog of this series, we explored the Croydon emergency planning team ambitions to strengthen local resilience and place communities at the heart of preparedness and response. When we first spoke to Andrea Allegra, Resilience Officer, the focus was on building the foundations for a more resilient Croydon. A few months on, those foundations are beginning to take shape, through new digital resources, stronger community partnerships and practical responses to this summer’s heatwaves.
Steps towards community resilience
Over the last few months, the team has been working to address a key gap in Croydon’s community resilience offer: the lack of a single place where residents and community organisations can access local resilience information and support. To address this, the team has been developing the Croydon Community and Emergency Hub, a new section of the Croydon Council website.
“One of the most significant early successes has been the development of the new Croydon Community and Emergency Hub”
Andrea Allegra, Resilience Officer
The hub, which is due to go live this autumn, will bring together trusted information, practical guidance and resilience resources in one place, making it easier for residents, community groups and local partners to access the support they need.
Building relationships with key VCS organisations
Andrea highlights that building relationships with voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations across Croydon has been a major focus. For many residents, these organisations are trusted sources of information, support and advice, making them vital partners in strengthening local resilience.
Early engagement focused on the BME Forum and the Asian Resource Centre, two organisations with strong connections to Black, Asian and Muslim communities across the borough. Rather than creating new structures, discussions centred on understanding the work already taking place and exploring how the council could support and complement existing networks.
These conversations have helped identify opportunities to:
- Strengthen local partnerships and community networks.
- Improve information-sharing between the council and community organisations.
- Better understand the information and resources communities value most.
- Explore how trusted organisations can support resilience messaging and preparedness activities.
Embedding VCS partners into resilience structures
We know that building relationships is only one part of the picture and that ensuring community organisations have a strong voice within existing resilience arrangements is an important next step.
Key VCS partners such as the Red Cross and Croydon Voluntary Action are involved in the Croydon Resilience Forum, a quarterly multi-agency meeting that brings together organisations involved in emergency planning, community engagement and wider resilience activity across the .
The focus is now on how their activities can be integrated in the wider scope of council preparedness and response; for example increasing the involvement of local volunteers in the activation of emergency centres, in training opportunities and live exercises.
By including community organisations in these discussions and adding them to key communications and distribution networks, the team is creating stronger links between local communities and statutory partners. This improved flow of information will help ensure that community perspectives are reflected in resilience planning, while community organisations have greater visibility of emerging risks, priorities and activities across the borough.
For Andrea, this represents an important shift towards a more collaborative and community-informed approach to resilience, one where community organisations are active participants in the conversation rather than simply recipients of information.
Building trust through partnership
A key lesson from the team’s work so far has been the importance of taking a tailored, relationship-led approach. Croydon’s voluntary and community sector is diverse, with organisations operating in different ways, facing different pressures, and serving different communities.
Rather than asking organisations to fit into a predefined model, the team has focused on listening first, understanding existing activity and identifying where resilience objectives align with work already underway. Treating organisations as equal partners has helped build trust and create more meaningful conversations.
As Andrea notes, community organisations do not always share the same priorities and at times may be competing for funding, influence or engagement within particular communities. Recognising these dynamics, and approaching engagement from a neutral and collaborative position, has been essential in building credibility and laying the foundations for longer-term partnership working across the borough.
Information-sharing in practice: the Cool Spaces initiative
One of the clearest examples of progress so far has been Croydon’s Cool Spaces initiative. As heatwaves affected communities across London this summer, the team recognised that although a London-wide programme to map cool spaces already existed, residents had no dedicated local directory of places they could access during extreme heat. Working with voluntary and community sector partners, the team worked to create a clear and accessible local resource.
A simple survey was shared with community organisations to identify suitable venues, and within days the responses had been used to create a publicly accessible directory of cool spaces across the borough. The speed of delivery highlighted the value of strong local networks, with partners quickly sharing information, identifying venues and helping turn an idea into a practical community resource.
By combining local knowledge, community networks and digital tools, Croydon was able to turn an identified gap into a tangible resource that supports residents when they need it most.
Learning from the recent heatwaves
This summer’s heatwaves offered a real time test of how communities, organisations and local services respond to extreme weather. One lesson emerged during a community partnership meeting held on one of the hottest days of the year:
“The event took place in a church meeting room with little ventilation and extremely high indoor temperatures. Not all community venues can cope with the heat and some organisations are not yet factoring these considerations into their planning processes.”
The experience sparked important conversations about how heat-related risks are considered in community planning and whether organisations have the information and support needed to adapt during periods of extreme weather. It also highlighted the importance of strong coordination across the council, with resilience staff, communications teams and senior leaders working together to share timely public health and safety messages.
Whilst challenging, the heatwaves strengthened conversations with local partners, raised awareness of climate-related risks and added momentum to resilience work already underway. They also reinforced a growing reality for London communities: extreme heat is no longer an occasional challenge, but one that requires ongoing preparedness.
Perhaps most importantly, the experience showed that community resilience is not always built through significant investment. Often, it comes from strong partnerships, effective communication and the ability to adapt quickly when challenges emerge. The heatwaves acted as both a stress test and a catalyst, revealing where preparedness can be strengthened whilst showcasing the value of collaborative problem-solving in practice.
Looking ahead: priorities for the coming weeks
The next priority for Croydon is to expand their Cool Spaces and Warm Spaces networks, encouraging more organisations and venues to take part and increasing the number of safe, accessible places available to residents during periods of extreme heat or cold.
At the same time, attention is turning towards flood resilience. Plans are underway to establish a dedicated flood resilience working group, bringing together partners including: the Environment Agency, London Fire Brigade and other local stakeholders to share expertise, strengthen coordination and develop a more joined-up approach to managing flood risk across the borough.
While there is still much to do, the last few months have shown what can be achieved through strong partnerships, shared learning and a willingness to work differently. From creating new resources and strengthening local networks to responding to real-world challenges such as this summer’s heatwaves, the foundations for a more resilient Croydon are beginning to take shape. The challenge now is to build on that momentum and ensure communities are better prepared for what lies ahead.
