Guidelines

This guide provides practical strategies for engaging children as active participants in disaster risk reduction. It frames children not merely as vulnerable groups but as agents capable of contributing ideas, identifying risks, and supporting community preparedness. Through participatory methods, case studies, and hands-on activities, the guide demonstrates how children can be meaningfully involved in planning, prevention, and resilience-building at the community level.

This manual presents the results of the work carried out within the CUIDAR project (Horizon 2020), focused on promoting a disaster resilience culture that actively includes children and adolescents. The manual documents activities conducted in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the United Kingdom, showing how young people are not only vulnerable subjects but can also become key actors in disaster prevention, preparedness, and response.

In emergency situations, the rights of children and adolescents risk being violated, ignored, or underestimated due to the need to intervene quickly on aspects related to primary needs. Based on experience gained internationally and in national emergency contexts, Save the Children Italia offers practical recommendations to ensure safety, educational continuity, psychological support, and child participation, emphasizing respect for children’s rights and strengthening community resilience.

This manual represents a practical and concrete support to all operators working in emergency settings in carrying out educational activities with children and adolescents in emergency situations.

Due to its sudden nature, an emergency disrupts and significantly alters the daily life and linearity of educational interventions. It is therefore crucial to restore routine and the psycho-physical well-being of the children involved.

A structured system where Japanese municipalities and welfare institutions create personalized evacuation strategies for vulnerable people, verified through inclusive drills and coordinated with local support networks.

The toolkit is aimed at school disaster management, risk prevention, and community awareness. It contains three integrated parts, which are a Participatory School Disaster Management handbook, a school disaster management plan form templates for school use and annual review, and student & community participatory activities.
It is designed to be updated over time (ring-binder approach) and adapted to different contexts.

The case illustrates how disability-inclusive DRR has been advanced in Vanuatu by shifting from ad-hoc inclusion to more systematic engagement of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations in preparedness, response planning, and community decision-making.

COPE Disaster Champions provides free illustrated children’s books, educational jingles and a digital platform to teach disaster preparedness and risk awareness. Through storytelling, visuals and simple action-oriented messages, the initiative empowers children to understand risks and adopt safe behaviours before, during and after disasters.

MAG-DER coordinates a standardised neighbourhood disaster volunteer model built on a 36-hour training programme (theory and fieldwork), volunteer team organisation, and “Neighbourhood Disaster Support Centers” (equipment containers) linked via radio to provincial crisis structures, with volunteer-led maintenance and periodic checks.

Safecast designs and deploys open hardware and software tools that enable citizens and experts to collect, share and access high-quality environmental data. Originating from a post-disaster information gap, Safecast promotes transparency, public trust and evidence-based decision-making through open data and community-driven monitoring.