ABOUT ESS

HISTORY OF ESS

Communities have always pulled together in times of disaster. Friends and neighbours support one another in an outpouring of generosity that is a testament to the best side of human nature. Much of the assistance is spontaneous, and in some parts of the world this immediate unorganized help is the only assistance that disaster victims and evacuees receive.

Though British Columbia’s written history is short, beginning with European contact and settlement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the province has always been subject to natural disasters. Native oral history tells of entire villages that were destroyed by tsunamis which struck the westcoast of Vancouver Island. The fact that these stories have been passed from generation to generation is a reflection of the tragic impact to the human survivors of these events.

Floods, forest fires, and landslides have all taken their toll on BC communities over the past two hundred years. With a self-reliant population imbued with the frontier spirit of mutual aid, assistance to disaster victims has traditionally relied upon a spontaneous, loosely organized community response. Government was involved in responding to the event and assisting with the physical recovery, but looking after the needs of the affected population was largely left to the citizens and to non-government agencies. This “make do” approach to what we now call Emergency Social Services (ESS) is summed up in this quote from an old timer, a veteran of community forest fire evacuations from the mid twentieth century.

“When we had to evacuate a town because of a forest fire we conscripted the men to work on the fire line and we put the women to work cooking meals for the fire fighters. And the big kids looked after the little kids. That’s how we used to do ESS in the old days.”

BC communities have matured and the emergency response structure has become more sophisticated since this time. Although communities are still populated with resilient, self-reliant citizens, local and provincial governments provide more support for emergency planning, and a more comprehensive response structure is now in place.

DEVELOPMENT OF ESS

During the 1950s and 1960s, the federal government supported ESS through planning for civil defense. With the end of the Cold War, the provincial Ministry of Social Services and Housing was handed the task of overseeing ESS response capabilities.

Gradually, the ESS Program evolved. Through its volunteer base, energetic individuals were recruited to become the ESS Director for their community. Supported by policy framework, advice, and training from the Ministry of Social Services and Housing, these ESS Directors set about recruiting community members to develop plans and be trained to assist their fellow citizens during emergencies that displaced people from their homes. From its humble beginnings, ESS in BC has grown to become recognized as one of the most successful provincial programs of its kind in Canada.

In 1987, there were fewer than a hundred ESS volunteers throughout the province supported by two ministry staff. Today, there are over 5,000 volunteers, many with years of experience, organized by the local authority's Emergency Program Coordinators and ESS Directors and supported by PEP.

Empowerment of volunteers to actively participate in the local emergency management of their communities is the key to success of ESS in BC..