Today will be the premiere of the Academy of Civil Protection, a project that will become a “reservoir” of volunteering in the country and will give impetus to a new operating system for volunteer organizations.

The new Academy, which will be inaugurated today at its facilities in Vilia Attica by Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianidis, will be a school open to the public and will train volunteers who are members of voluntary civil protection organizations to lead the OTA. , state bodies, law enforcement agencies of all categories and citizens, in matters of civil protection and anti-crisis management.

Its mission is to provide certified, theoretical and practical education and training in civil protection and crisis management. The first cadets of the Academy will be members of the voluntary civil protection organizations of Attica, with interest in participating in and monitoring programs reportedly being particularly high.

The new Academy will become a “nursery” of volunteering, since among the conditions necessary for a member of a voluntary civil protection organization to receive the status of a civil protection volunteer, passing the necessary certified training at the School of Volunteers and Volunteers include civil protection organizations of the Academy of Civil Protection. At the same time, in this way, they seek to update the register of voluntary civil protection organizations, since in order to include a voluntary civil protection organization in the register, among the criteria it must meet, at the same time, at least 12 of its members must be trained in each action, depending from the activities they want to join and return to.

The Academy of Civil Protection includes the School of Volunteers and Public Organizations of Civil Protection, the School of Personnel and Leaders of the PTA. the first and second grades, the School of Public Administration and the School of Citizens, and the educational and training programs of the Academy of Civil Protection, which will be provided free of charge, are designed for topics such as: a. emergency prevention and response (eg legislation, general emergency response plans and immediate/short term management), b. Forest fires (e.g. training of forest crews, forest fire prevention, basic knowledge of self-defence), c. Urban fires (e.g. teaching basic principles of urban fire fighting, fire behavior in a building environment), d. Search and Rescue (e.g., building collapse evacuation, mountain and cave rescue, liquid element rescue), e. First Aid ( e.g. Basic Principles of Life Support for Adults and Children, Special Topics: Injuries, Burns, Poisoning), e. Care activities (e.g. Provision of temporary shelter and food for the population, psychological support for victims, relatives of victims and first responders), g. Crisis communications management (eg basic information management principles, organization of press conferences, combating the spread of panic), h. climate change, environment, culture and technology (eg impact of climate change on quality of life, sustainable mobility, Protecting cultural heritage from climate change, Technologies for climate change).

It is noted that the Ministry of Climate Crises and Civil Protection, since its inception, has paid special attention to the role that civil protection volunteers can play in emergency response and crisis management, indicating that volunteer organizations are an integral part of the Political Protection mechanism. The academy, with the training and certification system it provides, will allow volunteers to contribute to this field in the best possible way.

Source: RES-IPE