21.12.2011

UW/H study on volunteers’ commitment in disaster control

Volunteer activities play an important role in the management of disasters and emergencies.

The Federal Ministry for Education and Research funds a project on priorities for emergency measures; the aim is to study steering, standardization and deficits in the German disaster management system. The Chair for Political Science, Security Research and Disaster Management (Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Lange) commissioned a Forsa survey on community commitment, main areas of commitment, motivation, and on how much the public knows about organizations of civil defence and disaster control.

Researchers also expect to define potential incentives for volunteers and the preparedness of the general public to become active in these areas.

The survey covers 1.001 interviews. 56 % answered that they are active as volunteers, 25 % in sports (13 %) and social initiatives (12 %), and only 4 % in fire defence, civil defence and disaster control (multiple answers possible).

Current challenges for the German civil defence system, such as demographic change or the abolition of compulsory military and civil service, demand to explore attitudes and notions among the population concerning community commitment in order to collect the data required for adequate planning. Prof. Hans-Jürgen Lange: “In Germany, efficient civil defence and disaster control is not possible without volunteers.”

The study describes the current state and also illustrates citizens’ motivations for or against volunteer work.

Interviewees believed e.g. that incentives such as further training may induce more people  to become volunteers than monetary incentives (e.g. driving licence). Only eleven % of those respondents not active as volunteers saw no incentives whatsoever for voluntary work. Most volunteers said “it is fun” (82 %), or “it is for a worthwhile cause” (80%). Only 3 % gave “monetary reasons” for their volunteer work.

Results indicate that voluntary commitment might become more attractive to more people in the future. Prof. Lange: “Fire services and relief organizations must face the challenge and revise their structures to make room for more volunteers if they want to ensure continued protection for the population in disasters and emergencies.”

The study explores possible formats of volunteer work in distaster control and a variety of scenarios like power blackouts, pandemics or terrorist attacks, and the consequences for public safety and coordination between federal and regional authorities in emergencies.

Project partners are the German Red Cross General Secretariat, the Sachsen-Anhalt Ministry of the Interior, the Hamburg authorities for internal affairs and sports, and the Frankfurt Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Academic project partner: Chair for Public Law, Political Science and Constitutional History, Bielefeld University (Prof. Dr. Christoph Gusy).

The Federal Government’s security program is an important initiative to show up deficits in disaster control and develop model solutions.