Coordination of Spontaneous Volunteers in Disaster Response & Crisis Management
Who are We?
KatHelfer-PRO is a joint project in which a broad consortium of various partner organizations from civil protection, science and industry is developing a joint socio-technical solution for the coordination of spontaneous volunteers in crisis and disaster situations. The main participants are T-Systems International, Fraunhofer FOKUS, German Red Cross, Malteser Hilfsdienst, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, University of Paderborn and University of Stuttgart. Based on the research results of the last decade, we develope an IT system as well as organizational and procedural aids for the goal oriented, user friendly integration of spontaneous volunteers in disaster management. The focus is on the implementation of solutions with a high maturity level, so that the results can quickly be applied in the national context of Germany. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education.
What do we want to achieve?
- A solution for integrating spontaneous volunteers into the work of authorities and organisations with security tasks (Disaster Management Organizations).
- The technical provision of a centralised IT system for the automated assignment of tasks to spontaneous volunteers in crisis situations, which can be integrated into existing warning and helper systems.
- Provision of recommendations for action and training materials for cooperation with spontaneous volunteers for Disaster Management Organizations.
Our sub-goals
KatHelfer-PRO is a socio-technical project that aims to provide both a technical tool in the form of a digital coordination system and the necessary organisational procedures and processes for the cooperation of spontaneous volunteers in civil protection. The three main objectives are listed above. We also pursue and take into account a number of other objectives.
The objectives shown in this figure include our most important requirements for our technical system (left-hand side of the figure) as well as the organisational aids (right-hand side of the figure). We also take into account the requirements of topic-specific research projects such as ENSURE, KUBAS, REBEKA, WUKAS and many more. In the course of our first work package, we also asked the stakeholders and users of our solution once again about their requirements. We prioritised the resulting set of requirements and incorporated them into our objectives.
Our starting position
In KatHelfer-PRO, a large number of users and scientists are working together to implement suitable solutions. The project partners have already been working for many years on various challenges relating to the involvement of spontaneous volunteers in civil protection. This allows the project to draw on a broad knowledge base and utilise findings, concepts and existing technical developments from previous projects in order to achieve the best possible results. The following demo videos show some of the technical developments from previous projects that are also being incorporated into KatHelfer-PRO.
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The coordination system being developed in KatHelfer-PRO to integrate spontaneous volunteers into civil protection is based on the findings of relevant scientific projects in recent years. The system demonstrator developed and tested in the BMBF project KUBAS, whose most important basic functions are shown in the video above, provides an important basis. The view of the spontaneous responders is displayed using a mobile app, while the view of the BOS is displayed via the "Task Manager" web interface.
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In order to make collaboration between civil protection and spontaneous volunteers as easy as possible, we want to integrate the usual communication services such as messenger and social media into KatHelfer-PRO in addition to helper apps. This video shows a first example of how spontaneous volunteers can use a chatbot to communicate their offer of help to the KatHelfer-PRO system in order to receive suitable orders.
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The introduction of new systems and methods in civil protection only makes sense if those involved are able to use them in an experienced manner. We simulate the behaviour and interaction of spontaneous volunteers with the coordination system so that they can be trained to use the KatHelfer-PRO system in exercises. To do this, we utilise the findings from KUBAS and the IS2Save project, whose demonstrator is briefly shown in the video above.