The Partnerships Behind Every Response

Six REACT Responders travelled to Ukraine last month to deliver incident management training. But hundreds of people helped put them there.

Every deployment, every training course and every response depends on an extraordinary network of partners. Here’s what that network looks like.

Partners who fund the work
Some partners choose to back humanitarian action itself, funding both the response and the readiness behind it. The UPS Foundation have recently stepped forward as one of them, supporting our disaster response deployments and the training of our International Responders. In mid-August, the next cohort begins that training, and the next generation of international disaster Responders will be ready thanks to The UPS Foundation. They stand alongside the companies, grant-makers and individual supporters whose generosity funds everything we do. Many of our volunteers also help fund REACT’s work - including our Trustee James Coates who kayaked the Thames last week to raise money for REACT’s mission!

Partners who respond alongside us
Others contribute resources we could never build ourselves. Through our new partnership with Airbnb, families whose homes have been made uninhabitable by disaster or emergency can stay somewhere safe, private and free while they recover; and Responders can be housed close to where they're needed most.

When Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica, Airlink flew 19 REACT Responders into the response and home again, adapting flight after flight as the situation changed on the ground. Those Responders deployed through our UN Standby Partnership with the World Food Programme, working within a coordinated international effort to reach the communities hardest hit. 

And in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Education Platform makes our work possible. Their local knowledge, relationships and courage took our teams to six cities in one week this June, training more than 120 psychologists, teachers, journalists, de-mining specialists and community volunteers. Kherson happened because a UEP colleague travelled ahead to prepare the ground. That is the power of partnerships - together we achieve things none of us could achieve alone.

Partners who connect us to the bigger picture
Partnership also happens in council meeting rooms across the country. Local Resilience Forums bring together the emergency services, councils, NHS and voluntary organisations that respond when a crisis hits a community, and REACT Responders serve as Liaison Officers to forums covering 31 of England's 38 LRF areas, all of Wales, and four regions of Scotland. It's quiet, unglamorous relationship-building, done by volunteers in their own counties. But it means that when floodwater rises or families need to evacuate, the local emergency planners already know REACT, trust REACT, and pick up the phone for some support. 

Nationally, our associate status with the UK Resilience Academy connects us to the organisations shaping how the UK prepares for emergencies. For a charity with a small HQ team of 11, this network lends us a reach and influence we would never have alone.

Partners who help train our Responders
Our Responders are only as good as their training. Remote Area Risk International helps prepare our teams for remote and hostile environments. Sedbergh School in the Lake District generously hosts our UK and International Operations courses; providing both professional facilities and challenging terrain for our Responders to learn essential skills in.  

Could you partner with REACT?
Whether a bunker in Kherson, a warehouse in Jamaica, or a rest centre in Coventry - the strength of our partnerships are present in everything we do. None of these partnerships exists only for the moment disaster strikes. Together they create the readiness that allows REACT to act within hours, not days.

So to our funders, operational partners, strategic allies and trainers - thank you - we are deeply grateful to each and every one of you. 

If you or your organisation would like to be part of what comes next, please get in touch - we always welcome new connections that can help REACT reach people in humanitarian need.