Why is it so important in KRAKO that participants start communicating with one another during the training itself?

“Because effective cooperation depends on people having established at least an initial connection and shared experience. We do not expect a fully functioning network to emerge from a single training day, but we can very deliberately create the right conditions for one to develop.

That is why KRAKO is designed so that participants are not simply listeners. They discuss, compare perspectives and learn to recognise the different skills that others bring to the group. One person may have an excellent understanding of the local area, another experience in organising people and activities, a third technical knowledge, and a fourth a natural ability to connect with others quickly. It is only through interaction that this wider picture begins to emerge.

Our experience shows very clearly that a sense of being part of a group does not come from a slogan; it comes from working together. If people have already thought through or solved something together before moving on to further cooperation, they have a much stronger starting point for whatever comes next.”

What role does the City of Tallinn play in this process?

“Tallinn is not simply a funder of KRAKO or a party to whom something is handed over at the end of the project. The city is the other side of the partnership throughout the process. On the one hand, participants gain a better understanding of how the city’s system works, what roles different actors have, and how their own contribution might fit into that system in the future. On the other hand, the city has the opportunity to get to know these people from the outset: to understand what knowledge and experience they have, what needs they themselves identify in their area, and how they would like to contribute.

This two-way learning is an important part of the Crisis Research Centre’s methodology. Sustainable cooperation does not emerge when one side simply issues instructions and the other follows them. A much stronger foundation is created when both sides understand who they are working with and what each can contribute.

Within KRAKO, our task is to bring these people together, give them a common starting point and create that first shared experience of cooperation. Although the future development of the network and its integration into Tallinn’s wider system will be the city’s responsibility, we are very pleased to be able to make the first substantive contribution to that process in Mustamäe.”

What would you like Mustamäe participants to take away from the training?

“The most important thing is that what remains afterwards is not simply an individual training experience. We want participants to have established connections with other people, developed a better understanding of their own strengths, and gained a sense of how they might actually achieve something together.

KRAKO’s strength lies in the fact that gaining knowledge, practising cooperation and building connections between people all take place within the same process. These are not separate activities; they reinforce one another. This is precisely the approach that we at the Crisis Research Centre have been developing consistently and refining through practice over the past three years.

Our role is to give the network as strong a start as possible. From there, it is important that Tallinn and the Tallinn Municipal Police Department are able to continue working with these people within the city’s own system, and that the relationships and cooperation created through KRAKO do not end with the final training day.

If the city has people who know their local area, know one another and already share a common experience, future cooperation begins from a much stronger position.”