Extra Care Communities: A pilot project with Electricity North West Limited
3rd October 2022
As part of our work to support communities to become more resilient, we’re working with six rural communities in Cumbria to explore (and develop) ways in which they can be enabled to provide additional support, during emergencies and power outages, to meet the needs of local people.
What will Extra Care Communities look like?
They will develop places and points of contact, where people can go during power outages or emergencies to get important information, updates and support.
They will have volunteers who can respond with equipment and support, to help people living locally, who need a bit of extra support in their own homes, during power outages or emergencies.
They will have named individuals who can contact Electricity North West directly and act as a conduit to get important information to their wider, local community.
Extra Care Communities will have communications plans in place to cascade information to people who live within a defined boundary – these plans must be workable during power outages and extreme weather events (where it’s safe to do so).
We are piloting this approach because we hope that these activities will reduce the impact of power outages and emergencies on people and communities, ensuring people feel safer, are better informed and that people who need extra support are less likely to have to endure discomfort and potentially high-risk situations.
We want to learn from communities that have experienced extended power loss in their local area, to hear about the challenges they faced, how they overcame those challenges (and/or how they would have addressed those challenges given the benefit of hindsight!) We also want to develop a ‘menu of options’ that other communities can choose from, to help roll out these approaches in other areas of the county.
Areas that become Extra Care Communities will also be offered support to develop their ‘neighbourliness’ offer; encouraging neighbourliness (building social connections, support and reciprocity) helps to build resilience in communities and helps to keep these connections going all year round.
If you’re interested in being part of this project, please contact Jozi Brown, email jozibrown@cumbriaaction.org.uk or call 01768 425648 (direct line).
The project will link in with Electricity North West’s Extra Care Register, to ensure that people who need more support during power outages get the help that they need.
https://www.enwl.co.uk/power-cuts/extracare/
https://www.enwl.co.uk/globalassets/customer/documents/psr/ecr-info-booklet_web.pdf