Me rite tō hapori mō te ohotata Get Your Community Ready

Step 1.Get to know your neighbours

Knowing your neighbours

Your neighbours may be the first people able to help you in an emergency. When you get to know your neighbours, you’re more likely to look out for each other during and after an emergency event.  

You may also meet people in your neighbourhood who may need extra help in an emergency such as elderly, those with disabilities, people living alone, or people with English as a second language.

• Share contact details with your neighbours so you can contact each other if an emergency occurs.
• Tell your neighbour about your emergency plan and ask about their plans.
• Create a network of people who will let each other know that an Emergency Mobile Alert has been issued.

Step 2.Join a Community Response Group

No one knows a community better than those who live in it!

Community Response Groups are a team people in your area who are trained to open and run a Community Emergency hub.  They work with Emergency Management Otago to develop community response plans by the community, for the community. They are a great way for the community to come together, discuss and outline how they plan to respond and keep each other safe during an emergency event.

To ensure that Community Response Groups have the capability to activate, training can be provided by Emergency Management Otago to cover:

• Community Emergency Hub operations.

• Health and safety requirements 

• Status reporting, and radio communications.

To start a Community Response Group in your area or join an existing group, contact your local Emergency Management Advisor.

Step 3.Volunteer in your community

Volunteers are an important part of the emergency management community, before, during and after an emergency event.

Whatever organisation you volunteer for, or even if you just show up to help occasionally, you can promote preparedness and increase the resilience of the Otago region.

Here are some of our partners that you could volunteer with:

Volunteer South

The NZ Red Cross

Neighbourhood Support

Fire and Emergency New Zealand

Land Search and Rescue

Amateur Radio Emergency Communications