Selected for The Nippon Foundation Grant Program "Disaster Victim Support System and Practical Training Realized by Connecting Teams"!

Disaster victim support is provided by various entities such as government agencies, social welfare councils, and NPOs. To establish a "connecting team" that bridges these diverse organizations and to build a "functional support system" through regular training, The Nippon Foundation's grant program "Disaster Victim Support System and Practical Training Realized by Connecting Teams" was announced. The Saitama Prefecture Disaster Volunteer Group Network "Sainokunikaigi" (hereinafter referred to as "Sainokunikaigi") (in cooperation with the Association for Collaborative Disaster Drills) applied for this program and recently received notification of its selection. We plan to share the details of the initiatives undertaken by Sainokunikaigi, including their objectives, four specific activities, deliverables, and a chronological schedule, in a five-part series on our official note page (https://note.com/sainokunikaigi). We are diligently working on the articles, so please look forward to our next update!

Part 1: [Kick-off] From "Well-Intentioned Volunteers" to "Public Infrastructure"! The Future Aimed for by Saitama's FEMA and Private Crisis Managers

Content: Overview of the project, introduction of mid-to-long-term goals and final objectives.

Key Points: We will present the vision of why "private crisis managers" are necessary and how to break the structure of "volunteer free-riding (reliance on unpaid labor)" to foster empathy.

Part 2: [System Development] Act Immediately in Disasters! Real-time Collaboration with a 14-Field Specialized Support Resource Database and kintone

Content: Introduction to the prioritized initiatives "1. Development of a Support System" and "4. Development of a Communication and Coordination Infrastructure."

Key Points: We will specifically explain how to digitize 14 fields of specialized support (database creation, resource sheets) and how to achieve cross-organizational collaboration using kintone, as well as the role of the dedicated team (5 members) within Saitama Prefecture.

Part 3: [Human Resource Development] Cultivating the Core of Community Disaster Prevention: "Specialized Field Leaders Training" Begins!

Content: Introduction to the "Specialized Field Leaders Training (August, September, December)" scheduled in the implementation timeline.

Key Points: We will convey the importance of the process of raising the literacy of leaders in each field through training by specialized staff and averaging the intensity of collaboration.

Part 4: [Disaster Scenario Training] Prevent Bottlenecks! Behind the Scenes of Saitama's FEMA-Linked Disaster Scenario Training Supervised by the Japan Research Institute

Content: Introduction to the prioritized initiative "2. Implementation of Disaster Scenario Training."

Key Points: We will explain the flow from the technical operational training in October and November (Kawagoe City, Ageo City) to the large-scale command training covering 15 fields in February (Collaborative Disaster Drills in Sugito Town). We will delve into the significance of advanced scenarios that visualize "support bottlenecks."

Part 5: [Recommendations for the Future] Towards a Society That Doesn't Rely on the Good Intentions of Volunteers: Guidelines for Public-Private Collaboration and Policy Recommendations

Content: Introduction to the prioritized initiative "3. Expanding Awareness in the Local Community" and "Main Deliverables."

Key Points: We will summarize the deliverables forum (online) to be held in March, the "Policy Recommendations" visualizing the economic value of private support, and the "Standard Guidelines for Cooperative Structures" for use by local governments, reporting on the sustainable outcomes of the project.