Want to help out in an Emergency?

Sign up to be on our emergency volunteer register here.

Did you know that within the first four days of responding to Cyclone Gabrielle 3,000 people registered to be emergency volunteers through Volunteer Hawkes Bay? Volunteers are crucial to emergency response and recovery. Volunteers are often the first people on the ground, they know their community and have a diversity of skills to offer.

Volunteer Kāpiti has been asking the question – if an emergency were to happen in Kāpiti, how prepared is our volunteer community? We have been talking with other Volunteer Centres around Aotearoa, Volunteering New Zealand, Wellington Regional Emergency Management (WREMO) and Kāpiti Coast District Council, to understand how we can learn from each other and work together.

The emergency volunteer register is one way we can be more prepared. If Kāpiti were to have a major weather-related event tomorrow and a call was put out for volunteers to help with general labour and care support, we would be able to put a request out to people already registered on our database that have identified they can help in those areas.

If you are interested in helping out in an emergency, it is easy to register your details. You can opt out or change your details at any time. Depending on the situation you may be contacted and asked if you can volunteer – of course you can decline if you are unable to assist at that time.

This is one of many ways you can volunteer in an emergency. In a major emergency, local Community Emergency Hubs will be open as a place where you and your neighbours can help each other.

Thank you to the Kāpiti Coast District Council and the Alexander Harold Watson Charitable Trust (managed by Perpetual Guardian) for supporting this project.