Building Resilience in Communities (BRIC)

Organisation Bio

Building Resilience in Communities (BRIC) is a social innovation project working to equip communities with the tools they need to respond to surface water flooding in Plymouth.

By encouraging people to change their behaviours around water use, we believe we can build climate and flood resilient communities throughout the city. Surface water flooding is highly affected by climate change - wetter weather means more floods, especially in highly urbanised areas with limited permeable green space.

While our focus is flood related, community engagement, involvement and co-creation is at the heart of everything we do. Our campaigns and approaches could be applied to a wide range of different innovation initiatives.

Through sustained engagement with communities throughout Plymouth, and the creation of resources such as our Slowing the Flow booklet, our mission is to promote water saving methods and behaviours that benefit people and planet.

Product/Services

What we provide

Volunteer Community Flood Responder (CFR) Training -
Building Resilience in Communities (BRIC) are looking for volunteers to be part of a network of CFRs. In this role, you’ll take small actions to help your community prepare for flooding and play a key part in taking action if there is a flood. You’ll be a valued and essential link between your community and Plymouth City Council, helping us all become more resilient to flooding and climate change.
We hold semi-regular training workshops for this role both online and in-person. If you are interested in getting involved, send us an email at BRICTeam@plymouth.gov.uk with the subject line "Community Flood Responder".

About our climate journey

Climate awareness is crucial to meaningful environmental work. Through our work as BRIC we have been able to channel our individual passions for the planet into campaigns that uplift and support others to develop their own climate and resilience journeys.

We take a green-first approach to flood management and preparedness - working with natural flood management (NFM) and sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) on projects big and small. From encouraging people to keep their gardens green instead of installing concrete, to supporting large-scale SuDS schemes in parks around Plymouth, our goal is to increase resilience to flooding and climate change at the same time.

One of our ongoing initiatives is the training and recruitment of volunteer Community Flood Responders. This role equips people with the knowledge and skills they need to prepare for and respond to flooding in their community, underpinned with a deep understanding of climate change and its effects. Through this initiative, we are supporting people throughout Plymouth to increase their personal resilience and spread the message with their personal networks.
Community Flood Responders are awarded a digital badge to celebrate their participation and dedication to the role.