DISASTER RISK REDUCTION & RESPONSE
OUR NEW GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS
CONTENTS
3.
OUR NEW GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS
3.
A NEW ERA: MOVING FORWARD
4.
THE NEW PREMISES
5.
OFFICE SPACE AND LAYOUT
6.
MULTI FUNCTIONALITY
6.
TRAINING FACILITIES
7.
REFLECTIONS: INTO THE FUTURE
UK registered charity and USA 501 (c) (3) Not-for-profit
3
OUR NEW GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS
The Rescue Global headquarters (HQ) has recently
moved from our previous base in Victoria Street, Central
London, to our own building and operations space near
to Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, United Kingdom.
The move recognises our organisational growth, in terms
of an increasing number of team members, as well as our
need now for a dedicated HQ where we can have all our
core business functions under one roof. These include
our HQ staff, administration, finance, human resources,
governance, training and a more strategic positioning for
rapid and effective deployment when required.
Our new HQ provides us with a dynamic and collaborative
centralised workspace with bespoke training and spaces,
most of which we have designed ourselves, along with
secure stores and accommodation for staff during busy
periods. Our team members and partners are able to
make use of dedicated boardrooms, a variety of audio/
visual/conferencing and situational awareness platforms,
storage servers, cutting edge networking - both wireless
and cabled – all with resilient power and security (cyber
and physical) supported by our brilliant global HQ team.
The new premises are also the physical manifestation of
our expanding network of partners and global influences,
given the range of organisations we now support,
collaborate and operate with.
A NEW ERA: MOVING FORWARD
We are proud to be consolidating and building upon
our reputation as innovative leaders in Disaster Risk
Reduction and Response (DRR&R) strategy and
advocacy.
By consistently pushing our own limits, as well as those
of others in the field, we aim to disrupt the status quo of
current Disaster Management paradigms. We therefore
needed an adaptable workspace to support us in these
endeavours.
Increasingly, our own capabilities are being augmented
through the development our network of partners at the
local, national and international level, across a range of
sectors which feed into the Crisis and Disaster Resilience
Alliance (CaDRA), a group of like minded organisations
who strove to foster holistic resilience, building capacity
by uniting and empowering organisations working within
the Disaster Risk Reduction and Response cycle. As the
CaDRA network expands, we understand the need to
provide a dedicated HQ that can support, administrator,
train and provide operational guidance when required.
Our new HQ has spaces and capabilities designed with
the needs of of CaDRA partners firmly in mind.
Before the move into our new HQ had even been
completed, it has already seen us deploy to the
Philippines (with CaDRA partners at nation state and
international NGO level), as well as facilitate high level
academic research activities and host meetings with UK
and overseas government representatives and NGOs
with whom we co-deploy. We will soon be inviting
partners to embed staff with us at our new HQ in order
to enable joint working at all levels.
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION & RESPONSE
http://dbsgeo.com/latlon/
THE NEW PREMISES
The new premises are located on the Satellite Business
Park, Fleming Way, RH10 9PU, just five minutes away
by public transport from Gatwick Airport South Terminal,
the second largest airport in the UK and near to private
landing, maintenance and storage areas for our UK
based aircraft.
Close proximity to a world-leading international airport,
with excellent transport links into London city centre and
to the rest of the UK, our new HQ is ideally placed for
both easily receiving visitors from across the globe, as
well as for swiftly deploying an operational team with
minimal delay.
Close to, but outside of Central London: Always aware
of contemporary risks, our move out of central London
aligns with our thorough enterprise risk management
principles, minimising the impact of a real world major
incident on the effectiveness of our organisational and
operational functionality, as well as ensuring we can
mount credible and supportive response operations
domestically when required.
UK registered charity and USA 501 (c) (3) Not-for-profit
5
OFFICE SPACE AND LAYOUT
The new premises extend to almost 5’000 square feet
of space spread over two floors. The open-plan ground
floor provides areas for training with, maintenance,
storing and testing of operational equipment, as well as
transforming into a fully functional operations room for
planning, tracking and managing deployed teams across
the world without disturbing business as normal.
business development meetings can be held in custom
designed boardrooms, equipped with cutting edge
technology, some of which we are designing in-house
with CaDRA partners. Our augmented bird table is a
good example of this. See here for more information:
https://vimeo.com/132845564
The first floor is dedicated to the day-to-day running of
the organisation. The open-plan office facilitates and
encourages collaborative work, while conferences and
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION & RESPONSE
MULTI FUNCTIONALITY
A versatile workspace for a diverse workforce
We deliberately build professional teams around diversity
and varied specialist expertise. This drives our innovative
approach and aligns with our belief in making use best
use of multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial talent.
Variety in knowledge, experience and the free exchange
of thoughts and ideas remain vital components in the
improvement and evolution of our work. We intended to
reflect this in the physical layout of the new office, creating
a space designed for open discussion, consultation
and the free flow of information. By incorporating both
connected desks in small clusters, at which colleagues
and peers can sit, and bar-style ‘hot desks’ around the
peripheries, different working, learning and operating
styles and requirements can be catered for.
Helped by another CaDRA (industry) partner keen
to support us with equipment, we are about to take
delivery of batch of Tableair working desks, all of which
have dedicated power and internet functions, along with
the ability to raise (to allow work standing up), a brilliant
way to help our staff remain alert when working the
ridiculously long hours they are subjected to in times of
high operational tempo. See here for an introduction to
Tableair, and watch this space for details of an exciting
range of desks which we will have in production soon,
incorporating the functions of Tableair, with situational
awareness and machine learning (including artificial
intelligence) which will be the first of our production
products which Rescue Global will introduce to the
market. All proceeds from sales of our products go
directly to oyr Not For Profit entity and fund our life saving
Response Operations. http://tableair.com
The reception room, immediately upon entry to the
building on the ground floor, allows space for wellness,
relaxation and informal networking. A fully equipped
kitchen, shower room and sleeping facilities mean that
the key amenities for team members are provided, when
working long hours and staying overnight.
The remainder of the ground floor is dedicated to
equipment storage and training facilities to enable
continuous skills development.
TRAINING FACILITIES
Continual pre-deployment training is fundamental to
the timely execution of effective operations. Our training
encompasses both sound theoretical knowledge and
a broad range of up-to-date practical skills. Crucially,
it allows for the safe recreation of field and mission
scenarios to mimic those our team is likely to face during
real world deployments.
Our training space can also host presentations and
lectures for to up to 50 people, as well as critical skills
training such as first aid, communications equipment
familiarisation and planning.
UK registered charity and USA 501 (c) (3) Not-for-profit
7
REFLECTIONS: INTO THE FUTURE
The new Rescue Global HQ represents a significant
advance in our progression both as an organisation and
as a leading practitioner within the humanitarian sector,
promoting disruptive host nation empowerment and
cross-sector collaboration.
Recent years have seen us deploy in many different
ways, whilst staying true to our ethics. Nowhere is this
better summed up (externally) better than as stated by
the Director General (Military Staff) Sir Chris Harper, in
reference to our recent Nepal Earthquake mission. In an
open letter to Rescue Global, he said:
Regarding: Nepal, May 2015, in response to the
devastating 7.8 MT earthquake that struck Nepal on
25 April, some 81km from the capital Kathmandu,
Rescue Global immediately activated their Crisis and
Disaster Resilience Alliance (CaDRA).
Drawing upon the diverse skills of their disaster
management experts led by David Jones, this allowed
Rescue Global personnel, academics, International NonGovernmental Organisations and industry to react swiftly
and effectively in aligning with the intent and specific
requests of the Nepalese Government.
I was particularly pleased to see Rescue Global standing
firmly by its stated values of working directly to the
nation impacted by a disaster by seeking to mentor and
empower, rather than simply responding and delivering.
I also noted the organisation’s testing of a new approach
to the use of people, computers and social media, to
identify Search and Rescue targets of interest. This
included a clever blending of imagery from Rescue Global
CaDRA partners in theatre, with stock library material to
produce mapping and briefing products that were used
by commanders in theatre to deploy Urban Search and
Rescue, as well as Medical teams to best effect.
Once again, Rescue Global’s utilisation of state of the
art technology coupled with their ceaseless pursuit of
continuous performance improvement was usefully
brought to the fore.
Rescue Global’s efforts and achievements are
remarkable. The organisation continues to stand out
from the crowd. In this environment it is certainly an NGO
that deserves to be closely watched.
Sir Christopher Harper KBE
Having watched this process from NATO HQ in Brussels,
I saw that Rescue Global’s strategic leadership skills,
and their dynamic and innovative management of their
partners, appeared to perfectly match the needs of a
very tricky operating situation.
In a congested, contested and unwittingly over-crowded
environment the organisation seemed able to operate
with rapidity, wisely and with positive effect.
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION & RESPONSE
The move into our new HQ could not come at a better time.
Further milestones recently achieved include:
We are work with universities to consult on the design and
implementation of Disaster Management Degrees at the First
Degree and Masters level, co-sponsoring and supervising
PhD’s and providing bespoke training for both students and
DRR&R sector professionals.
We are collaborating under official Memorandums of
Understanding (MoUs) with public and private bodies in our
several of the countries we know we will continue to deploy
to, professionalising and formalising our services, aligned to
the needs of those specific countries.
We are supporting and enabling state government capacity
(military and civil defence teams), building resilience through
the provision of strategic mentoring and tactical codeployment throughout the entirety of the disaster cycle
(pre, during and post event). Our partnership with the 505th
Search and Rescue Squadron in the Philippines is one of
many exciting examples of this. More to come.
We look forward to receiving partners and guests at our new HQ in the near future.
If you would like to learn more about the Disaster Risk Reduction and Response activities of Rescue Global, or to find out
how you can assist us through making a donation, partnering or volunteering, please visit:
www.rescueglobal.org
@rescueglobal