The UK Civil Reserve (UCKR) will upskill individuals from across the whole of UK society to provide greater personal, local, national and international resilience.
UKCR received the presence of Chancellor of the Exchequer and MP for South West Surrey, Jeremy Hunt MP today to mark the occasion of our newly awarded charity status.* This is a significant milestone on our journey to becoming a national, strategic body for the provision of multi-skilled emergency responders.
Based at Dunsfold Airfield, UKCR aims to provide teams of well-trained civilian reservists across the UK who will be able to respond rapidly to any emergency, natural or otherwise, assisting the nation’s resilience response in times of crisis.
Steve Findlay, CEO UKCR, an international disaster responder and former Firefighter said, “We are pleased to celebrate our charity status with Jeremy Hunt and have the chance to introduce him to the team and explain our aims. We believe many civilians wish to help in their own communities during times of need, but to date it hasn’t been possible to enable these individuals to do so. However, at UKCR, we will upskill and enable such individuals, arming them with the necessary skills, training and equipment to respond rapidly to crisis situations. Not only will we be upskilling individuals, but we offer accredited skills that are transferrable to other sectors.”
Steve continues, “For instance we offer, in collaboration with our Australian partners @WithYouWithMe (WYWM)**, free digital skills training – worth over £2,500 for our first 500 Reservists. Individuals can upskill in cyber security or software development for example, gaining them transferrable skills to a variety of sectors, which could allow individuals to simultaneously pursue a career in their preferred field. We will also offer bespoke training courses in areas such as enhanced First Aid and Chainsaw operation as well as Geoinformatics, Leadership and Needs Assessment operations.”
UKCR embraces the latest technology not only in Reservist training, but also on the ground to streamline incident management and the needs assessment process. In partnership with SarStuff CIC, an innovator of Incident Management Systems, we are building a newly interactive e-tool to improve needs assessment recording, accuracy and analytical solutions to ensure faster humanitarian relief and more targeted aid at home and abroad.
UKCR recently deployed a team to Morrocco following the devastating earthquakes to assist in needs assessments and humanitarian aid distribution. Our OPs Director, Richard Bowyer, a former Royal Marine led the UKCR team. He explained, “We deployed within a few hours of receiving the request to help and were close to the epicentre within 24 hours doing needs assessments. We hit the ground running, ensuring that humanitarian aid got to where it was needed most. Our paramedic conducted medical outreach, our construction expert gave advice on reconstruction and the team assisted with warehouse management and the development of a disaster response platform. This is quite an achievement with only a team of four, but it shows what can be achieved when carefully selected, skilled teams are deployed. If we had had more funding at the time, we could have helped so much more.”
We are fundraising now to train our first 500 Reservists. Help us to help communities become more resilient and return those stricken by crisis to be returned to normal as soon as possible. Click here to donate
UKCR has been set up by a team of professional disaster responders and former military personnel who, during Covid noted the need for an organised team of civilian reservists who could fill the gap between the declaration of a major incident and a request for help beyond the community boundaries. UKCR is unique in that we will reward our reservists with a modest daily wage which will increase the accessibility of volunteering. More importantly, UKCR trains their ‘Reservists’ in the key skills and knowledge which our founders have gained through many collective years of humanitarian deployments around the world and their deep understanding of which skills are critical in such times of crisis.***
Contacts for media queries:
Annabel Mead, Head of Communications, UKCR
annabel.mead@civilreserve.org +44 7823335468
Notes to Editors
*Our Charity number is: 1205576
** WYWM is an Australian based tech skills provider, with whom we share the desire to help train and empower civilians with resilience skills to relieve the burden on the military and front-line services in times of need.
*** The need for a bolstered national resilience has been identified by government which notes a ‘whole of society’ approach is the preferred route for future proofing emergency response and recovery.
About UK Civil Reserve
At UKCR, we value the important role that both the Armed Forces and volunteers provide in critical incidents. However, with the increasing frequency of severe weather incidents for example, there is a need for bolstered national resilience. We will upskill civilians to support resilience efforts, working with the local authorities, other NGOs and community groups which will allow the Armed Forces personnel to concentrate on certain tasks or return as quickly as possible to their primary role of defending the nation as well as enabling Fire and Rescue Service personnel to be quickly made available to respond to other incidents.