The National Youth Table on Civil Protection Issues (TNG) is a participatory, comparative and collaborative tool aimed at involving new generations across Italy in the civil protection system through constant interaction with the Department of Civil Protection.
Map
National Youth Table
General Information
National Youth Table on civil protection issues.
Italy faces multiple natural hazards, making disaster risk management highly complex. Volunteers are essential to this system, providing manpower, local knowledge, and rapid response during emergencies. The young volunteers in the TNG not only offer insights from a volunteer perspective but, more importantly, bring fresh ideas to engage their peers, helping to attract new generations to civil protection through more accessible tools, methods, and languages.
Needs Addressed
Civil protection volunteers tend to be older, leading to limited youth representation, potential loss of generational knowledge, and challenges in attracting new, younger volunteers. The TNG empowers young volunteers to participate in decision-making, facilitates knowledge transfer, strengthens youth engagement, and helps make civil protection more accessible and appealing to new generations.
The TNG targets youth aged 16 to 28.
Italy’s civil protection system is a decentralised and multi-stakeholder model, where responsibility begins with municipalities under the mayor, escalates to regional authorities, and reaches the national level when local capacities are exceeded. It integrates government bodies, emergency services, scientific institutions, private operators, and NGOs, with a strong reliance on organised volunteers such as the Red Cross. While communities and volunteers play a crucial role in support, coordination and decision-making remain firmly with public authorities.
Italy’s civil protection system is highly effective in organised response, with strong coordination across municipal, regional, and national levels and a vast volunteer network. While preparedness measures exist, the system is more response-oriented than prevention-focused, with greater emphasis on managing crises once they occur rather than investing heavily in advance risk reduction.
Italy has strong infrastructures for disaster response, with well-equipped emergency services, advanced monitoring systems, and a vast volunteer network enabling rapid mobilisation. However, preventive infrastructure such as resilient land-use planning and building retrofitting is less developed, making the system more response-oriented than prevention-focused.
The role of the TNG in engaging young people within the National Civil Protection Service through key responsibilities that include:
- Analyze, interpret, and represent the needs of young people in civil protection.
- Propose sustainable ways to share knowledge from experienced volunteers with young volunteers to improve their learning and involvement.
- Develop organizational models that encourage active youth involvement and support generational transition in voluntary civil protection.
- Identify opportunities for young people to contribute to vulnerable communities and foster loyalty to civil protection, including spontaneous volunteering.
- Suggest ways to make civil protection more accessible and relevant to new generations, considering digital and ecological transitions.
- Offer innovative strategies to engage more young people, using contemporary digital and multimedia communication methods.
The TNG engages through structured, in-person interactions at the Department of Civil Protection, typically meeting quarterly with the Head of the Department or their delegate. Members may also hold additional preparatory meetings to explore specific issues in depth.
Participation in the TNG is a collaborative process where members share responsibility and contribute to decision-making. They do this by attending meetings, presenting the needs of young volunteers, proposing solutions and organizational models, sharing experiences, and working with experts and the Department’s Technical Secretariat to inform and shape initiatives.
Participation in the TNG empowers young volunteers to strengthen resilience across the entire National Civil Protection System by involving them in decision-making, problem-solving, and the development of adaptive strategies alongside experienced members.
Hazard Type
Geographical Scope - Nuts
Geographical Scope
Population Size
Population Density
Vulnerable Groups
Governance
Emergency Preparedness
Infrastructure Readiness
Engagement Level
Empowerment Level
Implementation
Participation in the TNG empowers youth by giving them the responsibility to represent their generation within the National Civil Protection System. They actively shape decisions, propose solutions, and collaborate with experienced members, which builds their leadership, decision-making, and problem-solving skills. This role not only strengthens the system’s resilience but also validates young people’s perspectives, encourages accountability, and ensures that the needs and ideas of their generation are meaningfully reflected in policies and initiatives.
Italian
Italian Department of Civil Protection
The Italian Department of Civil Protection has a mature and adaptive DRM system, combining multi-hazard expertise, national coordination, and local implementation guided by the principle of subsidiarity. Its emphasis on volunteer and youth involvement, research, and continuous learning strengthens both operational effectiveness and societal resilience.
The Italian Department of Civil Protection is the promoter and organizer of the initiative. In this context, the civil protection volunteers of Municipal Groups or other relevant Organizations have played a role in promoting the initiative in their local areas of reference and have supported young volunteers in the application process.
- Open the application period for possible candidates of the TNG via the national portal.
- Appointment of the Evaluation Committee, tasked with reviewing applications for the TNG.
- Evaluation of applications by the Committee.
- Official appointment of the members of the TNG.
- First in-person meeting held after appointments.
The implementation of the TNG requires human resources including the Evaluation Committee, administrative staff, coordinators, and IT support. Technological resources such as a secure application portal, videoconferencing platform, email tools, and a document management system are needed. Financial resources cover the operational budget, meeting and travel costs, and outreach materials. Physical and logistical resources include meeting venues, laptops and equipment, and stationery.
- Application period: open via the national portal for approximately three weeks.
- Evaluation Committee appointment: a few days after the application period closes.
- Application review: the Committee evaluates submissions over approximately one month.
- Official TNG appointment: members begin their two-year term after evaluation.
- First in-person meeting: held approximately two months after appointments.
- Ongoing meetings: monthly video conferences and in-person meetings every three months.
Experience of the Implementing Organisation in DRM
Target Audience
Resources Required
Timeframe & Phases
Participation Results
A key lesson learned is the importance of increasing the visibility of the program, as evidenced by the fact that for this term only 200 applications were collected at the national level
The specific challenges and adaptive strategies related to the implementation of the TNGc are not publicly available. However, possible challenges and adaptive strategies could include:
- Attracting diverse and qualified candidates: use multiple communication channels and offer application support.
- Managing evaluation timelines: set clear deadlines, assign responsibilities, and monitor progress.
- Supporting remote participation: provide reliable video tools, guidance, and technical support.
- Maintaining continuity over two years: keep thorough documentation, meeting minutes, and a shared knowledge repository.
- Limited engagement or participation is addressed through fair and transparent selection by an Evaluation Committee.
- Disruption of continuity is managed via fixed two-year terms and predictable meeting schedules.
- Geographic or logistical challenges are mitigated with monthly virtual meetings and quarterly in-person meetings.
- Lack of diverse representation promoted through outreach and structured evaluation criteria.
- Knowledge loss / institutional memory gaps are prevented by thorough documentation and shared knowledge repositories.
Risk & Mitigation Plan
Scalability and Sustainability
The TNG is maintained over time through stable funding, transparent financial governance, and structured operational procedures. These procedures include regular application periods, appointment cycles, monthly video conferences, and quarterly in-person meetings. Thorough documentation preserves institutional memory and ensures continuity, allowing new members to integrate smoothly and supporting sustainable, effective functioning.
The TNG framework is highly adaptable and could be scaled beyond young civil protection volunteers to include other vulnerable groups or volunteer communities. Its flexible structure makes it practical for replication in various contexts where inclusive participation is desired, especially at the local level. For instance, by implementing local tables, in-person meetings become more feasible and can occur more frequently, ensuring continuity and active engagement. This model allows these groups to contribute their perspectives to the decision-making process, giving voice to diverse experiences and needs.
Technology is essential to the TNG, enabling efficient application management, virtual meetings, and centralized documentation. It supports continuity, inclusiveness, and smooth operation, allowing the table to function effectively across geographic and logistical constraints
Information on direct costs is not publicly available.
Information on operational costs is not publicly available.