On 14th and 15th September, the consortium of the SHIELD project held a second face-to-face meeting in Vienna, Austria. Led by the German Johanniter-Akademie Mitteldeutschland in Leipzig, SHIELD aims to strengthen the resilience, safety and participation of people with disabilities to emergency preparedness and disaster management. Thirteen participants from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania and Slovakia met to discuss the implementation of the multidisciplinary project, which is co-funded by an Erasmus+ grant.
The first meeting day was dedicated to review learning modules developed in the past months in the field of civil protection. These modules provide responders with a shared, person-centred approach to inclusive civil protection. Its seven learning units combine concise self-study with preparation for practical application in teams. Further modules designed for ‘train the trainers’ courses were also discussed.
The second meeting day focused on the structure and the content of First Aid training scheme developed for people with disabilities. Participants also set the calendar of the coming months, which includes different training sessions at national level. In 2027 a joint exercise in Leipzig will show if our approach was successful: reducing prejudices and fear on both sides, breaking down the barriers to inclusive civil protection.
