One of our roles at Community Futures Howe Sound is to help support small businesses through disasters. Community Futures British Columbia has recently launched new resources to allow us to better support small businesses in BC before, during and after a disaster.
The resources include a roadmap of how Community Futures offices like ours can prepare to operate during an emergency, a simplified guide to emergency management in BC, and a catalogue of action-oriented instructional sheets covering various emergency-related topics including:
How to start or join an Emergency Management Team
What to do in the first 24-48 hours/1 week/1 month after a disaster
How to gather and share data about the needs of businesses
How to promote emergency readiness for businesses
How to provide support to an Emergency Operations Centre
Emergency recovery activities
Overall, this is a fantastic new resource that helps us, help you.
The resources have been developed by CFBC’s Economic Quick Response & Recovery Team (EQRRT) as part of the organization’s Rural Resiliency Initiative (RRI). Project funding has been provided by Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan).
The Rural Resiliency Initiative is led by Jennifer Wetmore, General Manager of Community Futures Boundary in Grand Forks, a community that has bounced back after experiencing severe flooding across the region including its commercial core in 2018.
“Since Community Futures offices are located in the rural regions we serve, we have been through disasters firsthand right alongside small businesses. Because of this we have in-house experts to advise our own network on what to do to ensure businesses are not alone, and get the resources they need quickly” she said.
Co-leading the Economic Quick Response & Recovery Team is Chris Marsh of Clear Sky Consulting, an emergency services professional and lifelong public safety professional, now Project Coordinator for the RRI. Chris’ years of experience with disaster-impacted communities was instrumental in developing the new resources. Prior to starting his business, Chris was the Manager of Emergency Programs for the Regional District of KootenayBoundary, a 10-year member of the Emergency Management BC Temporary Emergency Assignment Management System, Emergency Operations Centre Director and Flood Recovery Manager during the 2018 Kettle River flooding, and had a 15-year career in environmental monitoring.
“We are putting pen to paper to capture the decades of experience and knowledge our members have in this area” said Wendy McCulloch, Executive Director of CFBC.
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