The Educational Escape Room is an immersive, game-based learning experience developed by the Italian Red Cross that uses the escape room format to build disaster risk awareness, climate adaptation knowledge, and emergency preparedness skills among young people and communities through collaborative problem-solving under simulated crisis conditions.
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Educational Escape Room for Disaster Risk Reduction
General Information
ISIG
An immersive game-based learning experience that teaches disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation through collaborative problem-solving. Participants work together in a three-room installation to solve quizzes and puzzles to make their simulated community more resilient to natural hazards.
The escape room format has been implemented by the Italian Red Cross in various thematic adaptations depending on context, with a pilot project focused on three urban contexts in the regions of Lombardy, Lazio, and Campania. The first edition involved 30 young CRI volunteers as facilitators and reached 400 secondary school students. Thematic versions include climate change resilience (presented at COP27 in November 2022 under the name "State of Inertia"), hydraulic and hydrogeological risk (flood and landslide preparedness), and general disaster risk reduction.
The physical setup consists of three interconnected rooms installed in public squares and meeting places of main cities, creating an emergency-type context from which participants must escape within a pre-established time using creative and problem-solving skills. Activities include preparing an emergency kit to be used in the event of an emergency, identifying the safest areas of the city, and managing a family emergency plan. The educational approach draws on the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" and the operational experience of the Italian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in preparing territorial communities to face climate and disaster risks.
The escape room is primarily designed and facilitated by Italian Red Cross Youth volunteers and has been deployed at international climate conferences, during National Civil Protection Week events, community festivals, and educational settings across Italy.
Italy faces significant multi-hazard exposure, including seismic activity, floods, landslides, heatwaves, droughts, and climate-related risks, that is intensifying with climate change. Traditional disaster risk education through lectures, pamphlets, or classroom instruction often fails to engage young people effectively or create the behavioral change needed for genuine preparedness. Game-based learning and serious games have emerged globally as effective tools for disaster risk reduction education, creating experiential environments where participants make decisions with consequences, test response strategies, and build preparedness skills in psychologically safe but emotionally engaging formats.
The Italian Red Cross, as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and Italy's National Civil Protection Service, has a mandate to promote disaster preparedness at community level. The Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre has developed over 45 games globally on humanitarian issues including disaster preparedness, climate adaptation, and health, demonstrating the Movement's broader commitment to game-based learning as a preparedness strategy.
The escape room project stems from the need to develop a safety culture linked to disaster risk reduction, particularly among young people, who are both vulnerable to disasters and critical agents of behavioral change. The pilot focuses on three Italian regions (Lombardy, Lazio, Campania) to test the methodology across diverse urban contexts with distinct hazard profiles and socioeconomic characteristics, aiming to raise awareness, improve resilience and response capacity, and make young people feel active participants in preparedness and resilience-building.
Hazard Type
Geographical Scope - Nuts
Population Size
Population Density
Needs Addressed
Young people and general public audiences often lack meaningful engagement with disaster preparedness and climate adaptation topics, despite living in hazard-exposed territories. Traditional educational formats (lectures, brochures, classroom instruction) frequently fail to create the emotional engagement, behavioral change, or sense of agency needed for genuine preparedness action.
Specific gaps addressed include: limited youth participation in disaster preparedness planning and learning; abstract or technical presentation of climate and disaster risk that fails to connect to lived experience; lack of experiential learning opportunities that allow people to practice decision-making under crisis conditions; insufficient community-level understanding of collective action strategies for resilience-building; and limited practical knowledge on concrete preparedness actions such as building emergency kits, identifying safe areas, and creating family emergency plans.
The escape room format addresses these gaps by creating an immersive, emotionally engaging learning environment where participants experience the consequences of preparedness decisions in real-time through gameplay while practicing specific, actionable preparedness skills.
The escape room explicitly targets secondary school students as its primary audience, with the first edition reaching 400 students. Italian Red Cross Youth volunteers (30 in the first edition) design and facilitate the experience, making it a youth-led educational initiative. While not exclusively for youth, the format and participatory approach are specifically designed to engage young audiences who may be less responsive to traditional educational methods. The project aims to make young people feel they are an active part of preparedness and resilience-building, rather than passive recipients of safety messages.
The escape room is developed and coordinated centrally by the Italian Red Cross at national level, with thematic design and quality standards set centrally. However, implementation is community-led: local Italian Red Cross committees and youth groups facilitate sessions at community level, adapting content to local hazard profiles and delivering the experience through volunteer-led facilitation in public community spaces.
The solution is designed to build basic preparedness awareness and knowledge among general public and youth audiences who may have limited prior disaster preparedness exposure. It teaches fundamental preparedness actions such as emergency kit preparation, identification of safe areas, and family emergency planning. It also strengthens organized response capacity by training participants in collective decision-making, coordination, and structured emergency planning.
The escape room can be deployed in settings with basic infrastructure (community centers, schools, festival venues, public squares) requiring only meeting space, the three-room installation structure, printed materials, and facilitation capacity. It has also been deployed in developed infrastructure settings (international conference venues). The design for low infrastructure requirements enables wide accessibility.
Engagement is used to build disaster risk awareness, climate adaptation knowledge, and concrete preparedness skills through experiential learning. Participants are positioned as active problem-solvers and community resilience agents, with the game mechanics creating shared responsibility for outcomes. The activities directly connect to participants' lived environments, making preparedness personally relevant. The debrief phase translates game learning into real-world action planning with take-home tools.
Immersive three-room scenario-based gameplay installed in public community spaces; time-pressured collaborative problem-solving; hands-on emergency kit assembly activities; map-based identification of safe areas and evacuation routes in participants' own city; collaborative development of family emergency plans; group discussion and decision-making; structured post-game debriefing connecting experience to real-world preparedness actions specific to regional hazard profiles.
Participants have full decision-making authority within the simulated game scenario across the three rooms — their choices determine whether they successfully "escape" by implementing effective preparedness strategies. The activity design explicitly makes participants feel they are an active part of preparedness, not passive recipients of information. However, they do not co-design the escape room methodology or influence Italian Red Cross preparedness programming beyond the session itself. The empowerment is primarily cognitive, skill-based, and motivational: participants gain understanding of disaster risk dynamics, develop confidence in their ability to take preparedness actions, practice concrete preparedness skills, and receive practical tools they can implement independently at home.
Capacity is built through: knowledge transfer on hazard types, vulnerability factors, and adaptation strategies specific to participants' regions; hands-on practice in concrete preparedness actions (emergency kit preparation, using city maps for evacuation planning, creating family communication plans); experiential practice in collective decision-making and problem-solving under pressure; and provision of take-home preparedness tools (checklists, templates, local safe area information). Long-term empowerment depends on participants translating game learning into real-world preparedness behaviors in their households and communities: the provision of specific, actionable tools and locally relevant information increases the likelihood of transfer.
Vulnerable Groups
Governance
Emergency Preparedness
Engagement Level
Empowerment Level
Implementation
- The escape room format applies popular game mechanics — time pressure, puzzles, collaborative problem-solving, and narrative immersion — to serious preparedness education. Participants act as active agents making consequential decisions under pressure, mirroring the cognitive and emotional demands of real emergencies in a psychologically safe environment.
- A three-room physical installation creates progression and increasing complexity as participants move through stages of an emergency scenario. Deploying the structure in public squares and community spaces maximises accessibility and visibility, attracting both organised school groups and spontaneous public participants, turning preparedness education into a community event.
- Practical, immediately transferable skills are embedded throughout: participants assemble an emergency kit, use maps to identify safe areas and evacuation routes in their own city, and develop a family emergency plan with communication protocols and meeting points.
- Thematic adaptability allows the same core methodology to be customised to different hazard contexts and deployed across settings from international conferences to community festivals and schools.
- A youth-led design and facilitation model places Italian Red Cross Youth volunteers as both designers and facilitators, creating peer-to-peer learning dynamics that ensure the approach resonates with young audiences.
- The climate version introduces "State of Inertia" — a fictional community that participants must help adapt to climate and disaster risks. This narrative device provides psychological distance, allowing participants to explore difficult topics such as loss, failure, and difficult trade-offs without directly confronting their own vulnerabilities.
Italian
Italian Red Cross — the Italian National Society of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement — developed and coordinates the escape room nationally. The pilot project focused on three regions (Lombardy, Lazio, Campania), with local implementation carried out by Italian Red Cross territorial committees and youth groups in those regions.
Transferable implementing organizations could include: other National Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies; civil protection and emergency management agencies; educational institutions; youth organizations; and community-based disaster preparedness groups.
The Italian Red Cross is Italy's leading humanitarian organization and a statutory component of the National Civil Protection Service, with extensive operational experience in disaster response, preparedness, health emergencies, and climate adaptation. The organization has institutional expertise in community-based disaster risk reduction, youth mobilization, and innovative educational approaches.
Potential implementing organizations need:
- Sufficient DRRM knowledge to ensure content accuracy — Understanding of local hazard profiles, basic disaster preparedness principles and ability to access authoritative guidance.
- Youth engagement and educational capacity — Experience working with young people and secondary school students, facilitation skills, ability to create engaging learning environments.
- Community outreach capacity — Ability to coordinate with schools, municipalities, and community venues for deployment.
Primary developer and coordinator: Italian Red Cross
Facilitators: Italian Red Cross Youth volunteers (30 trained in the first edition), trained in escape room facilitation and disaster risk reduction content
Participants: Secondary school students (400 reached in first edition), young people (primary target), community members, conference attendees
Educational partners: Schools in Lombardy, Lazio, and Campania regions participating in organized student visits
Institutional supporters: Italian National Civil Protection Department (during National Civil Protection Week events), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, municipalities hosting public square installations
Knowledge partners: Content draws on IPCC reports and Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre expertise
- Thematic adaptation and scenario development: Select hazard focus relevant to the deployment context and regional risk profile. Develop the scenario narrative, puzzles, and learning objectives, incorporating activities on emergency kit preparation, safe area identification, and family emergency planning.
- Facilitator recruitment and training: Recruit and train Red Cross Youth volunteers in escape room facilitation, region-specific disaster risk content, debriefing techniques, and youth engagement methods.
- Logistical preparation and site coordination: Prepare and transport the three-room physical installation. Secure public squares or meeting places through coordination with municipalities. For school-based deployments, coordinate with secondary schools to schedule organised class visits.
- Installation and session delivery: Install the escape room in the chosen public or community space. Facilitators brief participants on the challenge and time limit before launching the timed experience. Working collaboratively, participants must complete three activities across the three rooms: assembling an emergency kit with essential items; using maps and hazard information to identify safe areas and evacuation routes in their own city; and developing a family emergency plan with communication protocols and meeting points. Creative and problem-solving skills are required to progress through the rooms and successfully "escape."
- Debriefing: Facilitators lead a structured debrief connecting game scenarios to real-world preparedness actions specific to the participants' region, and provide practical takeaway guidance.
- Documentation and learning: Deployment experiences are documented to refine the methodology and share lessons across the Italian Red Cross network, informing scale-up planning.
Human resources: Trained volunteer facilitators; volunteer time for setup, facilitation, and debriefing.
Physical infrastructure: Three-room installation structure (likely tent/modular structure for outdoor public square deployments); printed scenario materials, puzzles, quizzes, props to create immersive environment in three rooms; timers/hourglasses; maps of local cities for safe area identification activities; sample emergency kit items or checklists; family emergency plan templates.
Space: Public squares and meeting places in main cities; alternatively community centers, schools, or festival venues suitable for three-room setup.
Preparation time: Facilitator training, scenario setup and installation, coordination with schools/municipalities.
The model is designed for sustainability through volunteer delivery and reusable materials, relying primarily on stable local organizational resources (Italian Red Cross institutional capacity, volunteer networks) rather than external project funding.
The solution operates on a continuous deployment model: the escape room is delivered repeatedly across different locations and contexts throughout the year, as opportunities arise (conferences, community events, Civil Protection Week, organized school visits).
The pilot project successfully reached 400 secondary school students across three regions (Lombardy, Lazio, Campania) through 30 trained volunteer facilitators.
The methodology has been operational since at least 2022 and continues actively in 2025, indicating sustained institutional commitment and iterative refinement.
Target Audience
Resources Required
Timeframe & Phases
Participation Results
- Game-based learning formats create significantly higher engagement with disaster risk topics among young people compared to traditional educational approaches, as evidenced by the documented popularity of the escape room particularly among youth participants and successful reach of 400 secondary school students in the first edition.
- Hands-on, concrete activities are more effective than abstract concepts: The activities of physically assembling an emergency kit, using actual city maps to identify safe areas, and filling out a family emergency plan template create immediately usable skills and knowledge that participants can take home and implement.
- Public square installation model creates multiple benefits: Visibility and accessibility for spontaneous public participation, community event atmosphere reducing "boring safety lecture" stigma, ability to reach both organized groups (schools) and general public, and reinforcement of preparedness as a collective community responsibility.
- Thematic adaptability is essential: the ability to customize the escape room to local hazard profiles ensures relevance and maximizes learning transfer.
- Youth-led facilitation creates peer-to-peer learning dynamics that enhance credibility and engagement with young participants.
Limited duration constrains depth of learning: A single session cannot cover all aspects of disaster preparedness comprehensively. Adaptation: focused learning objectives per thematic version and through post-game debriefs that provide additional resources and take-home materials.
Scalability constraints of facilitation-intensive and infrastructure-intensive format: The three-room physical setup and facilitation requirement create logistical complexity. Each session requires trained facilitators, and the installation must be transported and set up. Adaptation: training large volunteer facilitator networks, creating reusable installation infrastructure that can be moved between sites, and leveraging existing public spaces rather than dedicated facilities.
Maintaining participant engagement throughout three rooms: Participants may disengage if puzzles are too difficult, if group dynamics are poor, or if the three-room progression loses momentum. Facilitation training, adaptive puzzle difficulty, and the variety provided by progressing through three distinct rooms with different activities help maintain engagement.
Reaching beyond organized school groups: While reach of secondary school students through organized visits is successful , reaching spontaneous public participants requires public square installations during high-traffic events. The deployment model during festivals, National Civil Protection Week, and community events addresses this.
Psychological distress from disaster content: Discussing climate crisis, floods, and disasters can provoke anxiety, particularly in participants who have experienced trauma. Mitigation: careful facilitation, use of imaginary scenarios, and debrief emphasizing agency, concrete preparedness actions, and solutions rather than fatalism.
Unequal participation within teams: Dominant participants may exclude quieter ones from decision-making. Facilitation techniques promoting inclusive participation and the three-room structure providing multiple opportunities for different participants to contribute help mitigate this.
Physical safety during escape room activities: Participants moving through three rooms, manipulating objects, and working under time pressure could face minor injury risks. Standard safety briefings, supervision by trained facilitators, and age-appropriate activity design address this.
Weather/environmental risks for outdoor public square installations: Rain, heat, or wind could damage materials or create unsafe conditions. Contingency planning for weather, tent/shelter structures, and ability to relocate to indoor venues mitigate this.
Risk & Mitigation Plan
Scalability and Sustainability
The solution operates on a volunteer-based, institutionally embedded model. Sustainability mechanisms include: delivery through Italian Red Cross Youth volunteer networks, creating a self-renewing facilitator pool as new volunteers are trained; embedding the escape room within the Italian Red Cross's core preparedness and youth engagement mandate, ensuring ongoing institutional support; reusable three-room physical infrastructure that can be transported between deployment sites and used repeatedly, amortizing capital costs; reusable printed materials and props; and integration into recurring institutional calendars, providing regular deployment opportunities. The model does not depend on external project funding or commercial revenue, making it resilient to funding cycles.
The escape room methodology is highly scalable horizontally through replication across Italian Red Cross committees and adaptation by other National Societies or civil protection organizations. The pilot project's reach — 30 facilitators training 400 students across three diverse Italian regions (Lombardy, Lazio, Campania) — demonstrates proof-of-concept for scaling through Italian Red Cross volunteer networks. The documented thematic adaptability (climate change version, hydraulic risk version, general DRR) demonstrates that the core format can be customized to diverse hazard contexts, geographic locations, and audience needs while maintaining effectiveness.
Scalability is enabled by: low infrastructure requirement relative to impact; reliance on trained volunteers; modular thematic design allowing context-specific customization to regional hazard profiles; and institutional backing from the Italian Red Cross providing quality assurance, facilitator training infrastructure, and coordination capacity.
The methodology could be adopted by other National Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies, civil protection agencies, schools, or community organizations with adaptation to local languages, hazard profiles, and cultural contexts. The Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement's global network and existing expertise in game-based disaster preparedness provides strong infrastructure for international transfer. The three-room structure and specific activities (emergency kit, safe area maps, family plans) are culturally adaptable concepts.
The innovation is methodological and pedagogical rather than technological. The escape room uses low-tech materials deliberately, ensuring accessibility and ease of replication. No evidence of digital platforms, apps, or sophisticated technology. This low-tech approach is a strategic choice enabling deployment in diverse settings including outdoor public squares, and reducing cost/complexity barriers to scaling.
No public budget figure available.
Direct costs per deployment: The three-room physical setup requires more substantial initial investment than a simple single-room format — likely including:
- Three-room structure (tent/modular installation). This is a reusable asset amortized across many deployments.
- Printed materials and props for three rooms: scenario documents, puzzles, city maps, emergency kit checklists, family plan templates, props.
- Transport and installation: Volunteer time, vehicle costs.
- Facilitation: 2-4 trained volunteer facilitators per session.
- Venue: Public squares typically free; alternative venues (schools, community centers) often provided free or low-cost.
Likely ongoing costs are primarily:
- Facilitator training: Periodic training of new Italian Red Cross Youth volunteers as facilitators.
- Material maintenance and replacement: Replenishing printed materials, replacing worn props, maintaining/repairing three-room structure.
- Transport and logistics: Vehicle costs to transport three-room installation between deployment sites, volunteer time for setup and takedown.
- Coordination and quality assurance: Italian Red Cross staff time managing the initiative nationally and regionally, coordinating with schools and municipalities for deployment sites, monitoring quality.
These costs are embedded within the Italian Red Cross's core institutional budget and volunteer networks rather than treated as a separate funded project.
Volunteer-based facilitation is a critical sustainability factor: by training a large pool of youth volunteers who facilitate sessions as part of their Red Cross service, the model eliminates the largest cost barrier and creates organic scalability as more volunteers are trained over time.
Reusable infrastructure design is essential for financial sustainability: The three-room installation represents an upfront capital investment, but its reusability across many deployments amortizes costs and makes ongoing per-session costs minimal.
Embedding in existing institutional structures and calendars creates recurring deployment opportunities without needing to generate demand from scratch each time. The pilot project's integration with secondary schools across three regions demonstrates successful integration with educational institutions.
Public square deployment model reduces facility costs to zero while creating high visibility that attracts spontaneous participation and reinforces preparedness as a community-wide concern.