Public sector & Institutions
Building community resilience: from education to intervention
Turning a community resilience vision into a structured, competitive project proposal
Client: NGO
The challenge
The Volunteer Fire Department operating in one of Croatia’s most demographically vulnerable and risk‑exposed areas, serving both as an emergency service and a key anchor of community life. They had a clear vision for strengthening community resilience but lacked the capacity to turn it into a competitive proposal for the Second Swiss Contribution – Civil Society programme.
What we did
We co‑developed the project: an integrated resilience model combining children’s education (“Little guardians of community” with embedded model “reverse socialisation”), work with the junior fire service, cooperation with emergency services and engagement of around 130 trained community members. We prepared the full proposal — intervention logic, activities, partnerships, budget, monitoring and evaluation — clearly aligning it with Swiss Contribution priorities on volunteering, social cohesion and replicability for other rural communities.
Outcome
Full project proposal developed and submitted under the Second Swiss Contribution – Civil Society programme, positioning DVD as a model of community resilience in demographically vulnerable rural areas.
