Funded by the UCPM (EU Civil Protection Mechanism) programme, Empower-Citizens (Empowering Citizens by Considering their Feedback in Preparedness Plans) is a two-year project that aims to provide effective solutions to support the resilience of European communities affected by disasters and emergencies.
At a time characterised by increasingly frequent and severe disasters, partly due to ongoing climate change, Empower-Citizens aims to help rethink the way we manage these events and to foster collaboration amongst all stakeholders within the community.
Now more than ever, involving citizens in civil protection actions and plans is essential.
The direct experience, tacit knowledge and skills acquired by citizens during emergencies are valuable and offer insights that complement those of professional stakeholders, representing an important resource for managing future events.
Empower-Citizens focuses specifically on developing and testing a procedure that can be applied by local authorities to gather and utilise feedback and lessons learnt from citizens to update civil protection plans.
The procedure, known as CLIPP “Citizen & Authority Learning and Improving Preparedness Plans”, will comprise guidelines and support tools designed to help authorities systematically apply this approach within their local contexts.
During the project, the CLIPP procedure will be tested in the review of two real-world civil protection plans: one in Castelraimondo, Italy, and another in Innlandet County, Norway.
The role of Cittadinanzattiva
Cittadinanzattiva is participating in the project by coordinating the analysis of past experiences and the needs of local authorities, and by contributing to the development of the CLIPP procedure through facilitating processes to engage citizens and local authorities in Italy.
Cittadinanzattiva will also be responsible for coordinating and facilitating the testing of the procedure in Castelraimondo in collaboration with the local council.
Through this project, Cittadinanzattiva reaffirms its commitment to making human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, and its support for achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda.
For further information, please visit the project website and its social media pages:
Consortium Members
The Empower-Citizens consortium comprises 7 organisations from 3 different countries:
- Deep Blue (Italy)
- NTNU Social Research (Norway)
- Cittadinanzattiva (Italy)
- Ministry of the Interior – Department for Emergency Situations (Romania)
- Municipality of Castelraimondo (Italy)
There are also two local authorities acting as associate partners:
- Municipality of Castelvecchio Calvisio (Italy)
- Statsforvalteren i Innlandet (Norway)
For further information, please contact the project manager, Maya Battisti:
Project duration:
The project began in February 2025 and will end in January 2027.
Funding programme / Call for proposals:
The Empower-Citizens project has received funding from the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism under grant agreement No. 101193397
