The National Civil Protection Week, events and initiatives throughout Italy

October 13, 2019. This is the Inauguration day of the National Civil Protection Week.

The webpage of  ‘La Settimana Nazionale di protezione civile’ has been  designed to guide you and share  the many initiatives and activities that will take place  both at national and local level during the 7 day  event in which Italian citizens can meet and relate directly  with the people working for the National Service of Civil Protection, an integrated system, a large network, almost unique in the world that operates 24 hours a day for risk prevention and protection.

The Civil Protection Week stems from a specific government decision, the Directive by the President of the Council of Ministers , that is Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte,  signed last April 1, 2019.

This Directive officially establishes a series of events and activities that will be held across Italian territory from the largest cities to the smallest municipalities aimed at the dissemination of knowledge and culture of civil protection in order to promote and increase the resilience of communities through the adoption of conscious behavior and self-protection measures by citizens, to promote information to the population on risk scenarios and  best emergency  codes  updated according to modern civil protection planning.

The decision to celebrate the National Civil Protection Week starting on October 13th is not by chance,  but the same date of  ‘The International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction’ proclaimed by the UN.

The aim is to highlight what is important in today's world and daily life in order to avoid risking our lives, our activities, our homes and our goods in the event of natural disasters.

The core objective of the project is to disseminate the "good practices for risk prevention " but also, there will be plenty of talk about resilience. The ability that our communities have  profusely shown  many times . The ability to restart, to rebuild not only literally but also metaphorically. Rebuild roads, houses, buildings and also the soul of communities affected by tragedies such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis or major disasters caused by industrial accidents.

A series of events and activities  will cover the entire week with a strong focus on young citizens, as specified in the Institutional Directive, to highlight the most severe and dangerous  risks of our country and the ability of people to prevent and protect themselves by adopting appropriate measures in collaboration and coordination with civil protection institutions to reduce the victims and damage to assets caused by disasters.

The Week, although a national event is above all a ‘local community’ event.  There will be initiatives carried out at national level such as the National Conference of Civil Protection Authorities identified by the Civil Protection Code held at the official DPC  Headquarters  in Rome -Via Vitorchiano, the seat of the operational headquarters at the top of the National coordination system for the  management of large scale major emergencies.

The Conference will be chaired by the President of the Council of Ministers, the country's highest civil protection authority.

The program also offers a wide range of national events: from conferences attended by representatives of the scientific community, to activities for the dissemination of civil protection knowledge to all students, from primary school pupils to students pursuing  higher academic  studies at University.

Alongside these mentioned events, other local initiatives will be held in hundreds of Italian squares, in large and small municipalities, where citizens will be able to meet the operators of the components and operational structures of the system in coordination with the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces.

With regard to the ‘Piazze’ or Town Squares that will launch the week, the "Io non rischio" (I don't take risks) Campaign will actively involve local communities in the event.

The ‘Io Non Rischio’ campaign , which began in 2011 and is now at its ninth edition, will see the presence of information gazebos in more than 850 squares throughout Italy with volunteers from local civil protection associations that will explain in detail the major risks affecting our country, that is earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and starting  this year also the volcanic risk of the Campi Flegrei area in the Campania region.

The Head of the Department Angelo Borrelli will officially close the National Civil Protection week from the Campi Flegrei area after the Full-Scale Exercise "EXE Flegrei". The drill scheduled from October 16th to 20th has been planned to test an escape plan put in place by the Civil Protection Department to ensure the safety of the population living in and around the “red zone” area in case of volcanic eruption. The Campi Flegrei volcano is characterized by numerous calderas affecting the areas of Pozzuoli, Naples and several other municipalities. The national exercise will involve the regions twinned with the "red zone" in the National civil protection Plan. 

All the news, images and comments of the exercise will be available in this section of the website in the next days.

October 13th is approaching and we invite you to stay with us and keep updated on our Week of prevention, protection and resilience, not to miss the opportunity to stick together  and learn more on  what it means to work and be a civil servant of civil protection!