Case Study: Somerset Emergency Volunteers achieve two extra days a week on the frontline with Claris FileMaker

FileMaker gives Somerset floods volunteers two days extra a week to help on the front line

Somerset Emergency Volunteers, together with South Somerset Association for Voluntary and Community Action and Mendip Community Support, faced an overwhelming recovery effort after the December 2013 Somerset Levels floods. With headquarters without power and activity logged on paper, a small core team struggled to track volunteer shifts, completed repairs and insurance records for thousands of affected households—work that consumed long hours and risked losing vital evidence, while custom system vendors quoted 9–12 months for a solution.

A local developer used FileMaker to build a relational database in two weeks and deployed iPads with FileMaker Go for volunteer check‑ins and insurance tracking. The system freed up roughly two extra days a week for frontline relief, improved mediation between residents and insurers, secured records for claims, sped identification of families in greatest need, and now provides a rapid‑deployment blueprint for future disaster recovery.

Somerset Emergency Volunteers

Paula Blight

Chief Executive, Mendip Community Support