Papakura people know that when the weather turns severe or if a major disaster occurs, we can’t always rely on outside help arriving quickly. At the recent Community Resilience Network (CRN) pop-up at Papakura Museum, volunteers (Rod from Drury, Denise from Kootuitui & Tash from Red Hill, supported by Brent from Papakura Local Board) spent the morning talking with locals about Community Emergency Hubs, and then, the very next day, heavy rain swept through Papakura. Thankfully it was brief, but it was a timely reminder: our flood risk is real and recurring.

What makes Papakura strong isn’t just our infrastructure – it’s our people. The hubs are built on a simple concept: in an emergency, your best first responders are often locals.

Community Emergency Hubs: locally led and trusted places

Papakura now has six Community Emergency Hubs in well-known places across the area:

• Papakura Marae, Hūnua Road
• Takanini Gurdwara Temple, Takanini School Road
• Drury Hall, Tui Street
• Red Hill Community Centre & Blue Light, Dominion Road
• Kootuitui ki Papakura, Broadway, Papakura
• Ngāti Tamaoho Trust, Hingaia Road, Karaka

These hubs are community-led spaces, where local people decide when to open and how to respond based on what’s happening on the ground.

Experience from disasters in Aotearoa show that official services can become stretched across multiple crisis points. Hubs help fill that gap by providing a place where locals can:

• share reliable information
• check on people
• coordinate help and volunteers
• connect needs with resources
• access basics like food, water, first aid, and reassurance

Each hub brings different strengths – from kitchens and showers to large community halls. What unites each of them is a willingness to help in challenging times.

Want to help too?

If you own or manage a facility and think it could support people during emergencies, you can explore becoming a Community Emergency Hub. Hubs reinforce a facility’s role in the community and help build everyday readiness, not just disaster response. You’ll also be supported by a growing network of local people doing the same mahi.

To find out more, visit:
https://crnpapakura.org/community-hubs/

Community Emergency Hubs are also a backbone for longer-term resilience

Originally identified as locally trusted sites for community-led disaster preparedness and response, these facilities operate as centres for local resilience training (first aid, psychological first aid, hub operations) and activating community volunteers.

In Papakura, these important places can also be identified as the bases for longer-term climate adaptation and social cohesion work, from marae-led energy resilience to Takanini Gurdwara and Drury community gardens, from Kootuitui flood-ready homes and sections, to Blue Light tamariki & rangatahi learning programmes, and mana whenua Taiao restoration.

Community Emergency Hubs are proving to be both reactive anchors in emergencies and proactive leaders of community-led climate adaptation, because communities naturally organise around familiar, safe, people-centred facilities to do what they see as most needed now and into the future.

This insight highlights that investing in Community Emergency Hubs is not just about readiness for the next emergency but is also about growing a grassroots resilience ecosystem for Papakura over time.