Lectures and practical exercises on civil protection and citizen safety during potential crises are among the key components of training at the Community Resilience Center in Złotokłos, near Warsaw. This initiative is a joint project of the local Volunteer Fire Department and the International Centre for Chemical Safety and Security (ICCSS). Experts emphasize that building community resilience is one of today’s most critical challenges and a key element in crisis preparedness.
Złotokłos is a village with 1,400 residents located in the southwestern part of the Piaseczno district in the Masovian Voivodeship. The local Volunteer Fire Department, in collaboration with the ICCSS, has launched a pilot project to establish a Community Resilience Center. A memorandum on this initiative was signed in the autumn of 2024. The center’s activities will focus on lectures and exercises in civil protection and crisis safety, aiming to develop the ability to build resilience at both local and international levels.
A Unique Initiative Rooted in Experience
“The Community Resilience Center in Złotokłos is entirely our original idea, developed over several years of work and experience gained in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and Jordan. While we talk about community resilience, we lack trained personnel to implement it, and we do not have trained services or staff. The center aims to provide a place where we can train people—from youth to emergency services personnel and even up to 100-year-olds,” says Ambassador Krzysztof Paturej, President of the ICCSS.
The ICCSS President highlights three key elements of the training program: theoretical and practical training, the development of effective communication and trust, and knowledge of regulations, such as emergency signal protocols. A similar initiative is already planned for implementation in Ukraine.
“We will showcase this process to our international guests and want to establish two centers simultaneously—one in Poland, already under development in Złotokłos, and another in Shatsk, Volhynia, near our border,” adds the ambassador.
Innovative Training Methods and Advanced Equipment
The center will offer practical training and exercises using modern equipment and innovative teaching methods. Key components of the project include:
- Training with fire simulators,
- Rescue operation simulations,
- Flood response exercises,
- Technical rescue trainers,
- First aid training equipment,
- VR/AR systems for simulating various crisis scenarios.
“We want to implement this process in Złotokłos and, from there, offer various training courses, including for media representatives,” says the ICCSS President. “The first courses will be designed for schools, focusing primarily on youth. The second category of courses will target government officials responsible for implementing civil protection laws. We aim to demonstrate that they can step beyond their desks and learn practical skills to pass on to citizens in their communities.”
Learning from Conflict Experience
A valuable aspect of the project is the involvement of individuals with firsthand experience in the war in Ukraine, as well as those analyzing lessons learned from the ongoing conflict beyond Poland’s eastern border.
“Today, Ukrainians have significantly more experience in saving lives and helping people in distress than they did at the start of the war. We are transferring these best practices to Poland, which is a crucial step in building joint European resilience. I cannot imagine Poland being safe if there is a high level of insecurity on the other side of the border,” emphasizes the expert. “Community resilience, which may sound like a purely domestic concern, inherently involves international cooperation. There is no security for Poland without security for our neighbors. We cannot isolate ourselves with walls. We also gain experience through collaboration with Germany, which faces different threats and challenges, as well as with Moldova and, previously, Belarus, and now very closely with Ukraine.”
Community Resilience as a Key Defense Strategy
Community resilience is now considered a critical challenge, especially in the context of potential military conflicts, alongside traditional military defense measures.
“We should be much more engaged in building mechanisms for exchanging experiences with foreign partners. Such mechanisms are currently lacking, even within the European Union, where processes are often overly bureaucratic. The key is to attract individuals who implement resilience daily rather than bureaucrats who remain behind desks,” says Ambassador Krzysztof Paturej.
