Here's a listing of organisation within and around local government as well as the local community. Those involved with emergency planning are also listed here.
Please choose from the list in order to filter the selection.
The British Red Cross offers a range of first aid courses covering various life saving skills that are suitable for everyone. They offer a simplified way of learning basic first aid skills and a range of certificated courses to treat adults. They also offer first aid courses designed to treat babies and children of 0-5 years. Courses range from two hours to seven hours depending on the number of first aid topics covered. You don’t need to have any previous first aid knowledge or experience as their public courses include lots of practical exercises to give you confidence in dealing with a real life emergency.
CCF is an organisation that aims to improve the lives of others in Cornwall, especially those who are isolated, disadvantaged and vulnerable. They give small grants to grassroots, front line and volunteer led organisations to make that happen as well as teaming donors and projects together. They are independent and rely on donations to fund them and continue their services. They are not supported by local or central government.
Cornwall Council is responsible for: preparing an Emergency and Business Continuity Management Plan; training Council staff and voluntary agencies to assist in the management response to major incidents; assisting in the development of multi-agency emergency response plans to identified risks; testing plans through multi-agency exercises; providing general advice to local businesses and voluntary organisations about Business Continuity Management; and putting in place arrangements to warn and inform the public in the event of an emergency.
Greenpeace defends the natural world and promotes peace by investigating, exposing and confronting environmental abuse, and championing environmentally responsible solutions. Greenpeace Cornwall mounts public campaigns and varies them around Cornwall to give everyone a chance. Contact them via the national website.
Pioneerium logHayle Pioneerium Project is about creating an enterprise culture. The Pioneerium will be owned and operated by the community and will be a self-sustainable attraction, which benefits locals, businesses and visitors. As well as creating jobs it will help address the problem that Hayle has – many visitors to West Cornwall stay there but go elsewhere during the day. After enjoying a trip to the Pioneerium, the visitor will stay in the town, enjoying the other attractions on offer, hopefully leading to a knock-on effect for local businesses.
Penwith Community Development Trus s a charitable and not-for-profit organisation which was formally set up in 1999. It aims to work in partnership towards the economic, environmental and social regeneration of the community. The aims of the PCDT include promoting and developing community economic initiatives of benefit to Cornwall communities; acting in partnership with the Voluntary and Community Sector, Public and Private Sector to achieve ‘joined up working’. It provides high quality training and capacity building for voluntary and community organisations leading to education, increased transferable skills and enabling better delivery of local projects. It champions the plight of small voluntary sector organisations in Cornwall. The Penwith Centre is a facility near the heart of Penzance where it is possible to rent rooms, offices or hold meetings.
Important decisions are being made about the harbour and seafront of Penzance. Many people feel that it is the sea that gives Penzance its identity yet the seafront and harbour have been neglected, despite being the key to the economic, cultural and social well being of the town. The Penzance Seafront Forum is a new initiative to enable the community to work together on a future vision for the seafront and harbour.
DirectGov web pages which describe: what you can do to prepare for emergencies; give advice on preventing different types of emergencies; help with preparing for emergencies wherever you are; and understanding risks and how the UK is preparing for emergencies.
Real Ideas Organisation uses social enterprise to create opportunities for young people and adults. From school improvement through sausage making to job creation through skate ramps, their consultancy, services and products help the customers and individuals they work with make change happen.
Amateur radio is useful for emergency communications because it does not depend on any infrastructure (eg the electrical power grid or any cabled network). Although mobile phones and the internet have wireless capability, they are still dependent on fixed masts and cabling which can be severely disrupted by a natural or man-made disaster; so while very useful in an emergency, mobiles and the internet cannot be relied upon completely. When the phone lines are down and the electricity is off, it is still possible to communicate worldwide with amateur radio using only battery power. The South West RAYNET Association (or SWRA) represents all RAYNET Groups in the South West of England irrespective of affiliation.
The first aid and health and safety trainer of choice for hundreds of thousands of companies, local authorities, other organisations, and members of the public. With thousands of training courses across the country, including Risk assessment, Fire marshal, Moving and handling, and a suite of first aid courses to suit any training needs, they enable hundreds of thousands of people to protect their colleagues, family, friends, and members of the community.
The Big Lunch is an idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun. In 2011 it happened on Sunday 5th June - over a million people took part. In 2012 it's the same weekend as The Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Sunday 3rd June 2012. A Big Lunch can be anything from a few neighbours getting together in the garden or on the street, to a full blown party with food, music and decoration that stops the traffic. Since starting in 2009, thousands of Big Lunches have taken place in all kinds of communities across the UK. Locally there have been Big Lunches in Penlee Park and Love Lane, Penzance.
If you have a Co-operative Membership card it doesn't just get you dividend points but also gives you the right to vote for member representatives in the region. Elected members then meet up every month or so. They are there to ensure that the views of the members are reflected and also to make sure that the organisation follows its values and principles in the local community. Committee members work with The Co-operative management and the wider community. They discuss the performance of The Co-operative businesses in their area, plan member and community activities and help to decide which groups should receive Community Fund grants from The Co-operative Group. The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Area Committee has 12 elected representatives. They have supported a number of local transition activities in the last few years.
The Sustainable Trust was formed by and for a group of people including voluntary groups and small businesses working in association with each other to improve the understanding and implementation of sustainable practices. Building on the principles of Local Agenda 21, recommended at the first Earth Summit they think globally and act locally to conserve natural resources, and effect small changes to our environment. Their aims are to advance the education of the public in the principles and practice of sustainable development; research or to fund research into the practice of sustainable development; conserve, protect, manage and restore for the benefit of the public the natural resources, animals and plant life of Cornwall and Asia; and advance the education of the public in the ecology, conservation and management of different habitats.
WRVS has trained teams of community support volunteers on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to emergencies. When an incident happens, WRVS is there to support that local community through the challenges and help them recover. In emergencies requiring evacuation, such as floods, bomb scares or fires, they set up rest centres providing shelter, refreshments, registration and information, and catering for special needs such as medication or pet care. They also provide emergency feeding at the rest centres, which may involve serving three meals a day to large numbers of people for extended periods. They have all the systems in place to organise food supplies on a large scale.
Friends of the Earth stands for three ideas:
There is a tomorrow and we need to use the planet like there is a tomorrow. This means living within the limits of the natural world.
Everyone gets a fair share. Everyone, everywhere, now and tomorrow, deserves to have a good life.
We need to change the rules so that the economy works for people and the environment, not pit one against the other.
The transition that we talk about on this site is to a world where "business as usual" is no longer an option. Unfortunately the majority of political parties are only too keen to keep "business as usual" going and are never prepared to even contemplate a different future in which it may actually be impossible to enact their proposals. All credit then to the Green Party which - since its origins in the 1970s - has always espoused views on a radically different level. The Green Party has two members on St Ives Town Council and two on Ludgvan Parish Council. It always puts up candidates in Cornwall Council and UK national elections.
