Whether it be preparing for a natural disaster or working to prevent gun violence, the Red Cross has been working within vulnerable communities — helping them to help themselves.

The charity’s Disaster Risk Reduction Programme took on a significant role in 2012 in Friswell’s Hill and Fenton’s Drive, and it is hoped the programme can expand to other communities around the Island.

The Red Cross programme is one of three family related charities that will benefit from a live telethon on Thursday by the Bermuda Broadcasting Company.

The Family Aid Bermuda Telethon will raise funds for the Red Cross, Family Centre, the LCCA (Lady Cubitt Compassionate Association) and the Gina Spence Productions.

Diane Gordon, the disaster manager for the Red Cross programme, explained that the definition of a vulnerable community is wide-ranging and could refer to anything from low-lying areas in danger of flooding, to areas with high crime rates or communities with a high population of seniors.

The initiative was originally launched by the British Red Cross, which provided funding for overseas branches, including Bermuda, to support communities through a method of collaboration with the relevant organisations on the Island.

“This initiative has allowed us to get into the communities and get them better prepared in terms of disasters,” Mrs Gordon told The Royal Gazette. “They can be man-made, natural, social or emergency crisis disasters. The point is to bring communities back together. It is about empowering the community to determine what issues are affecting them the most and how they can handle it first before they go out for help.

“We began doing that through training in CPR and first aid. We are getting communities to have x-amount of representatives within that sector to be properly trained, so if something does occur, then they are able to manage the basic issues themselves.

“For us, as an organisation, we believe that if we can get it right at the foundation level — that is, communities — people become better prepared and more resilient. Then when situations occur, it allows the top-tier levels such as government departments to be focused on what they need to do.”

The Red Cross is represented on the Bermuda Coalition Advisory Board, which included community organisations in the Pembroke area. When the Red Cross approached the Fenton’s Drive area, residents indicated that they never had the opportunity to have community events to highlight talent and get to know one another.

Bermuda Red Cross, through Imagine Bermuda and the Bermuda Coalition, assisted the Fenton’s Drive area with its first Youth Empowering Self community event.

“From that day, I met a number of residents in the Fenton’s Drive area and I established a relationship with them,” Mrs Gordon said. “I had the opportunity to talk to the residents and they were amused about the perception of others as to what their issues were. You would think that the dump was a terrible issue and perhaps the talk about gun violence, but through talking to residents, we found they were not the main issues.

“The issues were centred on basic things like lighting in the area. The first aid training aspect for them was very important because they have a lot of single moms, children and seniors in the area. Through our discussions and meetings over months, we heard from the residents about issues of concern. How can they improve and help their community more? We would call this Conducting a Vulnerability Capacity Assessment.”

With the British Red Cross funding coming to an end, the Bermuda version needs to find funding through local donations and sponsors. There are eight members of staff at the charity and a large team of volunteers. The funding raised will go towards training these volunteers as well as broadening out the Disaster Risk Reduction Programme to communities across the Island.

The Family Aid Telethon will be able assist with this. The other beneficiaries are Family Centre, which provides intervention services to children who are suffering from family-based problems; the LCCA, which aims to improve the well-being of those with medical financial or emotional needs with a focus on the elderly and children; and Gina Spence Productions’ Champion Programme that offers support to the children left behind from gun violence.

“The intent of Family Aid is to increase awareness of the many different resources available in Bermuda to assist families needing support and to raise funds to help resources reach more of the Bermuda family community,” said Rick Richardson, the telethon’s producer.

The Family Aid Bermuda Telethon airs on Thursday from 8pm to midnight. It will include a family walkathon on the same night starting at 6.30pm from Albuoy’s Point and finishing at ZBM headquarters by 8pm.

Two further fundraising initiatives will be launching concurrently with the telethon and walkathon throughout 2015: “Pennies from Heaven” by Marketplace and the “Roundup” campaign by Lindo’s.