Baltic Youth for Resilient Society
The BYFORES project aims to enhance resilience to natural and man-made disasters by strengthening inclusive, cross-sectoral cooperation between authorities and volunteer organisations in crisis management in the Baltic Sea Region with special focus on youth engagement. The project looks into the role that young people can play in managing and coping with disaster risks and reducing vulnerability through capacity building, education, and awareness raising.
The project focuses especially on promoting the recommendations of project ReSit (Situational Picture of Volunteerism for Societal Resilience in the Baltic Sea Region) from the point of view of young people as volunteers: clarifying the role and mission of young volunteers, improving their umbrella coordination, making volunteering more attractive to young people, providing sufficient training & development possibilities, and learning from youth on how they want to contribute and solve current crisis. These topics are dealt with through two crisis which are different in scale and by nature, but both have impacts on young people in the BSR: the war in Ukraine (man-made disaster) and forest fires (climate change, natural disaster).
Updating the recommendations of volunteer-authority cooperation
Activities and outcomes of the project include a joint international scenario-based exercise for young people, international training workshop and an international conference. The project will also update the recommendations of volunteer-authority cooperation so that both actors are able to respond better to the current safety risks in BSR and to execute the cooperation effectively also in the near future.
BYFORES seeks to connect and motivate volunteer organisations also at the international level. As a result of the project, international practical cooperation and joint preparedness among authorities, youth organisations and citizens in the field of civil protection are to be enhanced. BYFORES project also aims at institutionalising a BSR Network that will work together on joint opportunities and tackle common regional challenges.
The BYFORES project is implemented in close co-operation with a parallel project Volunteers and Local Authorities – Baltic Sea Region Network (VOALA), coordinated by Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat (CBSS).
Project duration
1 October 2022 – 29 February 2024
Funding
The BYFORES project is funded by The CBSS Project Support Facility.
Project partners:
Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB)
State Fire and Rescue Service of Latvia
Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC)
Ministry of the Interior of Finland
Hamburg Fire and Rescue Service
Danish Civil Protection League.
Project coordinator
The Finnish National Rescue Association (SPEK)
Contact:
Kaisa Eskelinen, researcher, project coordinator
Taina Hanhikoski, senior specialist, international relations
For details, see BYFORE homepage
More information:
VOALA project
