Participation in Civil Protection Planning

<< Background >>Needs can be retrieved firstly in the high rate of youth unemployment.Second, civil protection system needs the right skills; the first thing that catches the eye is the heterogeneity of required skills and competences and their degree of specificity.Third, volunteers’ wish to transform a passion into a job. What moves a person to become a volunteer is a strong will to help the others, a passion in doing that; our society, tends to lose the idea of passion connected to a job; and a job done with passion is destined to achieve more and better objectives.Finally, the development/support of entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurship skills is fundamental to reinforce the link between training activities and job market and improve employability.The project have also responded to other target group’s needs (public administration, citizens) as it has become clear how an informed and involved community is better prepared to respond to an emergency and better equipped to fulfill public authorities’ indications.<< Objectives >>PARTICIPRO aimed at improving the employability of young people in the field of civil protection planning.The project also aimed to create a tool for participation in Civil Protection planning, flexible enough to be used both as a working and a learning tool; in addition, the project aimed at selecting and training 10 young persons. The project also intended to sensitise citizens and public authorities so they will better cooperate in case of natural disasters.Finally, PARTICIPRO aimed at increasing democracy and share common values, by stimulating civic engagement and participation. << Implementation >>The main activities of the project were: the Basic training, the Tool Co-Designed Workshop, the Piloting, the Forward Looking Workshop. The PARTICIPRO Basic training consisted of three components: civil protection context, civil protection planning, participation in civil protection. The PARTICIPRO Tool Co-Designed Workshop consisted of 3 phases or workshop: preparation, implementation, feedback. The implementation workshop was composed by 3 activities: meeting with stakeholders, study visit, public event. The piloting of the PARTICIPRO tool took place in parallel in the two countries, also to overcome the obvious language barriers with some stakeholders.T he piloting was composed of three sessions: participatory session with administrators and those involved in civil protection planning and management; participatory session with citizens, selected based on their representativeness and exposure to the risk identified in the previous session; participatory session with the two previous groups. The Participro Forward Looking Workshop was composed by 3 phases: preparation, implementation, feedback. The implementation workshop was composed by 3 sub-activities.<< Results >>The project intended to design participative tools for project management, which would be made immediately available to start participative processes also in civil protection planning. This would have also allowed the partnership to stress the importance of the active role of citizens as relevant stakeholders in civic life and in building resilient communities.Another concrete output of the project was the production and delivery of the Family Emergency Plan. This plan was discussed and analysed together with the citizenship, as a useful tool both to train prevention thinking in ordinary times and in times of emergency in order not to panic and to have a track to follow.