To help those living in apartment buildings be more ready for various crises, the Crisis Research Centre has created a useful textbook. The textbook tackles relationships, reserves and skills as three pillars of community crisis preparedness. The strategy is predicated on the knowledge that, especially in terms of the cooperative, the most efficient approach to get ready for a crisis is to do it at the community level. Although Estonia has lately focused more on the degree of personal stocks and skills, the community approach has been subordinated. The new textbook fills in this void with useful direction.

It is meant for those who wish to start the evolution of crisis preparedness in their housing estate more generally as well as for those who want to increase their personal preparedness. Particularly underlined are communication, the creation of a joint crisis strategy and human resource mapping. Many times, bigger blocks of flats house a lot of people whose knowledge and abilities, if ready in advance, could be used all around during a crisis.

Apart from the community level, the textbook covers personal crisis readiness since it is a necessary condition for supporting others. Topics cover the particularities of getting ready for an urban setting, the function of the community in the city, and approaches for beginning community building. It also covers circumstances whereby a crisis renders staying in the city impossible and where an evacuation is required.

While the Crisis Research Centre’s website offers a free download for the textbook as an online resource, you can purchase a paper copy for postage HERE.