This blog post is written by Realife Learning, the learning and evaluation partner of the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership (VCSEP). The article explores the theme of learning together and the role of learning in building whole-of-society resilience in the UK. The post provides a contextual overview of the changing nature of emergencies in the UK and why national resilience is an essential goal that must be achieved together despite challenges associated with learning in the current context. Such challenges also include opportunities that can accelerate learning, even within the evolving nature of emergencies, the tempo differences between response and resilience, learning at differing scales, and broader socio-economic and geo-political factors.
The post takes a practical view, emphasising the need to develop inclusive people-centred approaches that ensure psycho-social well-being and local knowledge maximisation to foster a culture of shared ownership. It also highlights good practices in the UK, such as the National Consortium for Societal Resilience (NCSR+) strategy and manual, that can be used to create a local resilience capability alongside broader international learning that can be transferred and adapted to the UK context.
The post concludes with practical examples of current learning together practices in the UK for enhancing the whole-of-society approach, including government-level initiatives, local resilience forums, the VCSEP, existing community approaches, and community-delivered initiatives like Communities Prepared.