CREWS Partners Meet in Tallinn to Advance Crisis Preparedness and Volunteer Engagement

A central focus of the meeting was the first CREWS pilot action, which took place on 28 April in Jelgava, Latvia. Organised by the Jelgava Digital Centre, the tabletop exercise tested a new digital tool for communication and coordination between spontaneous volunteers and professional emergency authorities, and municipalities during crisis situations.

The Jelgava Digital Centre shared its reflections on the exercise and initial analyses of evaluation questionnaires. Additionally, the discussion on the digital tool offered valuable insights into further improvements and adjustments identified during the pilot. The digital tool, as well as the cooperation model, will continue to be tested and refined in next CREWS pilot actions planned in Hamburg and Warsaw in autumn 2026 and winter 2027.

The consortium was also joined by Kenneth Achner from Brand & Redning Sønderjylland, representing the Interreg project DanGer112. The project, completed in 2025, focused on cross-border cooperation between emergency services along the German-Danish border. His presentation offered valuable insights into lessons learned from cross-border preparedness cooperation and underlined the growing importance of resilience and preparedness agendas across the region.

Another focus area of the partners’ meeting was internal communication among project partners. Different aspects of communication were discussed with the aim of strengthening cooperation, making it more effective and results-oriented, and ensuring better alignment with the project objectives