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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 2000 |
| Website | https://www.cavra.org.uk |
Civil Aid Voluntary Rescue Association (CAVRA) is a voluntary civil defence & search and rescue organisation operating within England & Wales. It is a registered charity, and its purpose is to provide back-up personnel to the emergency services in a range of situations, providing support at public events and during times of adverse weather conditions, natural disaster or civil emergency.
CAVRA briefly ceased operations in July 2024 due to the retirement of Chairman Ivor Davies and a number of other trusties. Once new trustees were appointed in November 2024, the charity has relaunched, with an updated image, and new operating area, now covering England & Wales, rather than just the South Wales area from mid to the south Wales coast previously covered.
The relaunched CAVRA is split into three main sections, these are:
Community Resilience Unit
The Community Resilience Unit is CAVRA's core operations. These localised units, operating in a town or local council area provide trained and uniformed volunteers that are able to support emergency services, local authorities and their local community in the following situations.
- Post Flooding/Severe Weather clear up
- Evacuation/Rest Center Administration/Support
- Door to door information sharing/evacuation
- 4x4 Vehicle Support
National Resilience Support Unit
This unit provides a national capability for specialist operations. Currently, this is split into four sub-sections
- Rescue Unit - split into Water Based Rescue, and Land Based Rescue. Our Water Rescue Teams are trained in accordance with DEFRA National Flood Rescue requirements, and our Land Rescue Teams undertake training provided by UKLSI.
- Communications Unit – provides radio communications capabilities in areas where there is insufficient signal, or infrastructure is deemed inoperative. Also responsible for the setup and operation of a VACC (Voluntary Agency Coordination Centre) which is ideal for MASHAs (Multi-Agency Strategic Holding Areas) or similar concepts. CAVRA can provided power, heat, and lighting for multi-agency use during incidents.
- Medical Unit – provides volunteers trained in basic first aid, or FREC 4 for assisting with walking wounded in SRCs.
- Emergency Catering Unit – provides food to team members on operational duty and those members of the community rendered homeless and/or deprived of normal facilities.
Volunteers are selected from the Community Resilience Unit to progress onto the National Resilience Support Unit once they have shown dedication and commitment to the charity.
Headquaters
The volunteers within our Headquarters section includes our Senior Leadership Team, Trustees and the Administration, Health & Safety and Training Teams.
Headquarters are responsible for the strategic level of the charity, and oversee governance, training and procedure.
References
- "CAVRA volunteers rise to the winter challenge". Penarth Times. 31 December 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
- "Retirement of Ivor Davies as Chairman and dissolution of CAVRA". GVS. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
External links
- Civil Aid Voluntary Rescue Organisation
- "Civil Aid Voluntary Rescue Association (current entry), registered charity no. 1194929". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
- "Civil Aid Voluntary Rescue Association (former entry), registered charity no. 1088563". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
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