Part of the last event of the Crisis Research Centre’s Spring 2025 Community Based Civil Protection initiatives was the panel discussion With Maria Derlõs (City of Tallinn), Dr. Mariia Tyschenko (NGO Poruch, Ukraine), Hannes Nagel (Crisis Research Centre), and Dr. Kadi Luht-Kallas (Estonian Ministry of Interior) joining the conversation, the goal was to compile experts with various points of view on communities and crisis readiness.

The panellists considered at the start of the conversation what we might define as community in Estonia nowadays. The main description given was people working together in the same area, for the same goal; but, communities based on interests were also emphasised: for instance, people engaged in a particular hobby in the same area can also establish a community. Dr. Luht-Kallas underlined that in times of crisis, the community close by is quite crucial since it can be challenging to get persons living far away.

“People living in large apartment blocks and prefabricated housing are particularly vulnerable in an urban environment because of their reliance on basic services such electricity, water and heating,” said head of the Crisis Research Centre Hannes Nagel. Given many people live together, both individual initiative and the management of the housing association’s crisis readiness are equally crucial. Maria Derlõs emphasised her own experience serving on a board of a housing association and noted that, in order to effectively involve residents—including on crisis readiness—the boards of housing associations require particular support and training. Participants observed that, in terms of crisis preparedness and crisis management, the communication among residents—whether or not it occurs in housing associations—is rather crucial.

Dr Tyschenko, who shared her experience of more than ten years of war in Ukraine, echoed this point underlining the need of housing associations having a messaging app allowing for quick messaging—be it Facebook Messenger, Signal, or another group chat system. Furthermore mentioned by Dr Tyschenko was the so-called “social networking” should guide those in the building who cannot or do not know how to use such applications for whatever reason”. Should some members of the house find themselves unable to use these applications for some reason, it is advised that they use the traditional approaches of either knocking on the door or, for messages less time-sensitive, writing them on the stairwell notice board. Therefore, it is crucial that the residents’ or the management of the housing association have a general awareness of the neighbours who might require this type of information-sharing help.