Local Advisory Committees engaging in their communities

We established the first seven Local Advisory Committees (LACs) in June last year to put communities at the heart of our work, seeing as it’s the communities that we serve. Since then, our LACs have been making great progress in each of their unique communities.

LACs provide independent advice on what the communities value, their needs and the risks they face. This will inform our planning, and help us better support communities to reduce risk, prepare for and respond to emergencies, and recover quickly when they happen.

National Manager LACs Lucy Chamberlain says it’s been really fulfilling to see the committees hit the ground running and map out priority areas and which stakeholders to engage with.

“The committees have been working with our local leaders to get up to speed on each area from a Fire and Emergency perspective, and operationally, how we work,” says Lucy.

All seven LACs have now completed their third round of committee meetings, and finalised their work plans and priorities for engagement.

Many of the committees have also engaged with volunteers and volunteer representatives to understand the perspectives of volunteers and what their needs are.

Initial engagements have focused on the LACs sharing on who they are, and what they can offer the community they’re embedded in – each LAC has taken a tailored approach, reinforcing that no two communities are the same.

At the committees fourth round of meetings, they will review their engagements to date and focus on planning for their second year of operation.

You can read more(external link) about LACs on our website.

Northland's LAC	Hawke's Bay's LAC
Marlborough's LAC	West Coast's LAC
Chatham Island's LAC	Otago's LAC
Tairawhiti's LAC