Events You Don’t Want to Miss!
We have a valuable line‑up of events coming up for our partners, packed with insights and opportunities. Explore the details below and register for the sessions that interest you. We would love to see you there.
We are always keen to involve partners. If you have a topic you would like to lead on in the future, or something you want to raise or explore with other partners, we would love to hear from you. Contact us at info@vcsep.org.uk, or for London-specific interests, reach out to LCEP at info@lcep.london
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We are continuing our focus on catastrophic impacts on communities through a scenario-based exercise now titled Exercise Dry Thunder. You can register here and please do share this opportunity across your networks.
The event will open with a short briefing from Dr Villo Lelkes from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) to help us frame the exercise, covering current water resilience, risks, water adaptation and where the water cycle is heading.
We will then launch into small breakouts to begin Exercise Dry Thunder, working through a scenario involving relentless heat, critically low water reserves and a sudden failure in a water treatment system.
We will close the call with a plenary that helps us debrief and summarise what we have heard, identify actions and hear expert reflections from Villo at DEFRA and Ed Jarvis from the Strategic Adaptation for Emergency Resilience (SAFER) campaign team, part of the Climate Majority Project.
The exercise will help attendees test how we coordinate, prioritise and protect communities under extreme pressure, while deepening our understanding of partner capabilities, real-life scenarios and how we can support those most at risk.
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Our remaining EP Network Calls for 2026 are already scheduled for Thursday 10 September (date change from 3 September), Thursday 5 November and Thursday 3 December, all online from 10am-11am. Invites should be in your diaries (contact us at info@vcsep.org.uk if not).
Topics for these are still TBC and we want your input by Friday 24 July on what they could cover, so we would welcome partners emailing info@vcsep.org.uk with those ideas of specific projects, challenges and acute/chronic risks that you want us to try and focus calls on.
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We're running another session in collaboration with Horizon Resilience and this time really keen to tailor this one for Voluntary, Community, Faith sector groups and target the limited spaces available to those supporting disproportionately impacted communities. We won't preclude others from attending, but priority will be given to those outside of, or less familiar with, formal resilience structures.
Drawing on their experience at the heart of UK government crisis management, the training will provide participants with a strong practical foundation in crisis management principles, supported by a scenario-based discussion and applied learning. Attendees will go away with an improved awareness of crisis and resilience in the UK context, including how the voluntary and community sector fits within the wider resilience system and a practical understanding of the crisis lifecycle, from anticipation and response through to stabilisation and recovery.
Register for this session by emailing marcusbowen@vcsep.org.uk (limited to 20 places).
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Division in communities, rising tensions and civil unrest continue to be high on the risk register for organisations. A lot of research points to pre-bunking - intervening early to dispel myths rather than challenging misinformation after it appears, so how can community organisations feel better equipped to intervene? We’re collaborating with Protection Approaches to run a special session on helping participants safely address identity‑based harms in their community, school or workplace, using real-world scenarios to build confidence in implementing Active Bystandership in everyday life.
You'll learn what it means to be an active bystander, how to safely stand up for those being targeted by working through a series of scenarios to consider and learn what you can do when you encounter identity-based harms. With reflection on the root causes of prejudice and discrimination before discussing ways to contribute to dismantling those root causes to build safer, more inclusive, and just communities.
Register for this session by emailing marcusbowen@vcsep.org.uk (limited to 20 places).
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EP: LIVE will bring together partners from all sectors to strengthen connections, share learning and showcase the powerful impact of community-led resilience.
Our programme of inspiring talks, masterclasses and networking opportunities will cater to the breadth of the partners we represent, so whether you are a specialist in resilience or an expert in communities, EP: LIVE will serve up something for everyone and, crucially, create the spaces for these different worlds to collaborate.
First-release tickets have already sold out. If you're planning to join us, we encourage you to book soon. Find all the details and secure your tickets here.