Enhancing public preparedness and response to large crises

The http://www.projectPEP.eu (PEP) (Public empowerment policies for crisis management) project addressed future directions for research to enhance community resilience and bring a European 'enabled public' closer. Effective crisis management involves citizens, citizen-run organisations and political public empowerment policies.

Research was conducted on response organisations and citizen groups to understand the dynamics between the two. A study was carried out and focus groups were polled to see where, how and why citizens use technology in a crisis.

Based on the knowledge gathered, a crisis communication wiki for professionals was set up. This online tool helps improve resilience through collaboration between response organisations and citizens. It contains crisis communication resources and public empowerment guidelines that provide characteristics of the three crisis phases (before, during, after), recommendations and best practice examples. A temporary discussion forum was also added to the wiki that focused on directions for future research and on the implementation of public empowerment policies for crisis management.

In addition, a roadmap was delivered based on forum discussions and outcomes from an international conference. It lays down directions for practice, policymaking, and future research and implementation, including the use of social media and mobile services, to further citizen preparedness and response. Lastly, a special issue on community resilience was published in open access by the refereed journal Human Technology .

By identifying and exchanging good practice scenarios and knowledge across Europe, PEP helped empower the general public in enhancing crisis preparedness and response.