The project StrenghtVOL is funded by the European Union Civil Protection and implemented in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine.

Context 

With increasing numbers of disasters and growing needs for better response capacities in Europe and its neighbourhood, civil protection authorities and governments are looking to partner with volunteer organisations in addressing these needs. 

In the Southern Caucasus region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) as well as in Ukraine the Red Cross societies have implemented programmes and projects in the last decade with the objective to establish volunteer teams to strengthen disaster preparedness and response capacities. However, the systematic integration of these volunteer response teams into governmental civil protection systems, still needs to be improved. 

Main activities and objectives of the project 

On the basis of existing recommendations and lessons learned in the countries, and on international examples, a research report and a set of guiding principles for the development of cooperation models and agreements between the national Red Cross societies and the CP authorities will be compiled.

To allow the integration of Red Cross volunteers into the national CP systems and to have volunteers respond jointly with CP staff to emergencies, comprehensive integration and cooperation models and respective agreements will be developed and signed for each country to clarify roles and responsibilities for all parties involved. 

The developed models will be piloted by recruiting volunteer teams that will be assigned to newly established stations for fire and rescue services in Armenia and Georgia or to new security centres in Ukraine respectively.                                                                                                                       

Based on the developed models for the integration of volunteer teams and the evaluated pilots, action plans for increased deployability of volunteer teams will provide the basis for rolling out similar volunteer teams throughout Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine after the completion of the project.

The ultimate impact of the project will be that remote areas will be served better through a volunteer-based system complementing efforts of the national CP authorities, the density of the national CP networks will be increased, the remote areas become more self-sufficient in respect of emergency response capacities and the response times are considerably reduced.

Partners

The project is implemented by the partnership with the local Red Cross societies as well as international, regional and local authorities; governmental and non-governmental institutions.  

• Austrian Red Cross
• The Armenian Red Cross Society
• Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia
• The Georgia Red Cross Society
• Emergency Management Services Georgia
• Ukrainian Red Cross Society
• The State Emergency Service of Ukraine
• The Resilience Advisers Network