Last month we joined the Disaster Resilience Days, an event organised by the European Commission’s CERIS group, gathering projects working on disaster preparedness across Europe.
We came back with a curated selection of practical tools, games and resources that we think are genuinely useful for the YMCAs.
Below is what we found, project by project.
RESILIAGE — Tools for Building Resilience Ecosystems
The RESILIAGE ecosystem has developed a set of tools designed to support organisations in building and strengthening local resilience inside their RECORE platform. Inside them and the ones that we found the more useful for you are:
- RAISE. A simple self-assessment questionnaire that helps individuals and groups understand how prepared they are for emergencies and what they can improve. It is designed to be completed individually but with results meant to be shared with neighbours or community networks. This is ideal for youth workers to run with young people or groups at a community centre, as a conversation starter or awareness activity.
- If you are interested in the project and their methodology, here you can find a Replication Toolbox. It provides a structured framework to assist in replicating community-based resilience strategies, risk perception analysis, and disaster mitigation efforts.
- Preparedness Toolkits. Also called Soft Solution, they provide practical, hands-on materials — checklists and safety plans — to help citizens prepare in advance for potential emergencies. Ready to use, no expertise needed. Target: citizens, community groups, youth organisations.
→ Explore all the tools here: https://resiliage-ecosystem.eu/
SYNERGIES — Preparedness Cases Booklet
The SYNERGIES project works on citizen empowerment, community communication and the management of spontaneous volunteers during crises.
Their most accessible resource for the YMCAs is the Preparedness Cases Booklet, which illustrates how three very different communities (in La Réunion, Malta and Rotterdam) have approached disaster preparedness — covering real challenges like reaching vulnerable groups, managing language barriers and coordinating volunteers. It is readable, visually clear and a good conversation starter for your own teams.
→Download the booklet (EN) here.
→Also available in French and Dutch, and other audiovisual materials on the resources page.
PARATUS — Serious Games for Risk Scenarios
PARATUS developed a set of serious games that place players inside complex multi-hazard scenarios — floods, landslides, cascading risks — combining role-playing and scenario-building to practise critical thinking and adaptive decision-making in a safe environment.
They are designed for policymakers and first responders but work well for youth workers and NGO leaders looking to run structured preparedness exercises with their teams.
→ Explore the serious games in this link.
→ The project also has other available materials. You can explore it in the full project library.
DIRECTED — Immersive Experiences for Risk Communication
Among DIRECTED’s product solutions, the one most relevant for community use is Oasis IRIS — a platform that uses Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and film-based storytelling to communicate climate risks and disaster preparedness in an engaging, accessible way. It is designed to bridge the gap between complex scientific information and the general public, making it a strong option for youth-facing sessions or community awareness events.
→ Explore the product solutions with interactive tools here.
→ Toolkits, podcasts and other publications here.
B-PREPARED — A Mobile App for Disaster Preparedness
B-PREPARED has built a free gamified mobile app — IM-prepared — that uses geo-location, mini-games, quizzes and augmented reality to help people build disaster preparedness habits in an engaging way. It has age-appropriate content and is designed to be accessible to people with specific functional needs.
It is available on iOS and Android, making it easy to introduce in youth programmes, community workshops or informal education settings.
→ Download on Google Play here.
→ Download on the App Store here.
We will continue exploring initiatives like these that may be relevant and inspiring for the YMCA movement.
If any of these tools spark ideas for your work, we would love to hear from you.
