RESCOM: Community Resiliency & Continuity for Youth affected by Crises & Disasters
Project Description
The RESCOM project aims to promote Community Resiliency and Community Continuity in the face of risk, crises, and natural disasters, addressing the needs of Youth (18-30) who are facing challenges related to climate change, natural disasters, socio-technical accidents, and overall adversity. The project aims to increase awareness about risk, crisis & disasters, to promote preparedness & prevention, ultimately to encourage recovery for all Youth through Systemic Collective Trauma Management.
Project Deliverables
The project is going to produce a Risk, Crisis, & Disaster Management manual and training content, a Guide for Youth Workers, A Systemic Methodology for Collective Trauma Management, piloting activities and reports, a Train the Trainer event to increase capacity, and a Social Media Campaign to address Youth, Youth Workers, Stakeholders, and communities affected by risks, crises, and disasters, and earn practical techniques to manage stress and improve overall well-being.
Project Results
The RESCOM project is expected to increase awareness regarding climate change, natural disasters, socio-technical accidents, to provide knowledge and skills on prevention, preparedness, mitigation, recovery, resiliency and continuity for communities, with an emphasis in Youth; to equip youth, youth workers, stakeholders and professionals with a comprehensive methodology for collective trauma management, and to promote inclusive, resilient, and integrated communities.
Brief information about the project in greek can be found in the short informative triptych that follows
On Friday 13 September, members of the Magnesia community participated in a focus group on the impact of risk, crises and disasters on youth in order to tailor the solutions to be offered through the project. The focus group consisted of 11 people, 8 post-divorce and 3 remote. The focus group was implemented by the members of Poreia Ygeias (Health Route-Πορεία Υγείας) who run RESCOM, at the Chess Project offices, in two parts, from 09.00 am to 11.00 am and from 19.00 pm to 21.00 pm, in order to ensure the convenience of the participants. Among them, rescuers, volunteers, survivors of the Daniel and Elias floods, members of municipal organizations for adult education and vocational promotion, members of non-profit organizations for psychosocial support for the mentally ill and the wider community, teachers and adult trainers and young people, students of the University of Thessaly. Coffee and snacks were offered during the meeting.
Οn Thursday 24/10/2024 members of Poreia Ygeias (Health Route) participated in the regular meeting of the Network of Mental Health Institutions of the Magnesia prefecture that was held in the Recreation Hall of the Mental Health Sector of Volos General Hospital. Representatives of various local agents were informed about RESCOM scope, aims, and delivarables. Moreover, the results of the focus group which was held on 13/09/2024 were presented.
A constructive discussion was developed, concerning prospects of cooperation and the implementation of activities that might contribute to the enhancement of community resiliency and continuity for the youth of the Perfecture of Magnesia.
On Monday, July 7, 2025, a two-hour information event was held at the Job Center located at 5 Lachanas and Limnou (Old Volos) with the main speaker being the Founding Member of Pathway-Health Dr. Ioanna Georgiadou (Psychologist, Systemic Therapist and Supervisor). The aim was to present the ERASMUS+ project Community Resilience and Continuity for Young People Affected by Crises and Disasters: RESCOM and in particular to inform and receive feedback on the manual Guide for Youth Workers related to the promotion of community resilience and community continuity from professionals who support young people affected by crises and disasters (18-30 years old).
The information event was actively attended by executives from four different Structures of the Department of Planning and Implementation of Social Programs of the NSRF Municipality of Volos – representing the youth sector, the psychosocial field and the enhancement of employability.
In the context of the meeting, the following took place:
- Brief presentation of Bodies per representative (Job Center, Business Office, Community Center, Hot-Spot, Health Path)
- Brief presentation of the Projects of the Community Health Path (Chess-project, KA.LO., etc.).
- Extensive presentation of the review, nature and evolution of the Erasmus+ RESCOM program.
- Update and feedback on the first three deliverables: a) Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management Manual, b) Youth Worker Guide c) Systemic Methodology for Collective Trauma Management.
- Period of creation of the tools and digital dispatch to the Agencies (August-November 2025).
- Future pilot training workshops for professionals (October-November 2025).
- Youth Worker Guide Features: bilingual (Greek and English) with accessibility features for people with visual impairments and people with cognitive and learning disabilities. Publication and dispatch of a printed guide to the institutions: January 2026.
- Detailed presentation of the thematic sections of the Guide for Youth Workers.
The 2nd Collaboration Meeting for the project was held in Volos from July 9 to 12, 2025 in a climate of creativity and exchange of ideas.
