Voluntary work
The voluntary work of Civil Protection was established as a consequence of the great emergencies that have hit Italy in the last 50 years: the floods of Florence in 1966 and the Friuli and Irpinia earthquakes above all. A great spontaneous mobilisation of citizens made it clear that the solidarity of the people was by no means lacking, but an organised public system which knew how to employ them and get the best out of them was required.
The voluntary work of Civil Protection was established as a consequence of the great emergencies that have hit Italy in the last 50 years: the floods of Florence in 1966 and the Friuli and Irpinia earthquakes above all. A great spontaneous mobilisation of citizens made it clear that the solidarity of the people was by no means lacking, but an organised public system which knew how to employ them and get the best out of them was required. Since then the voluntary organisation of the Civil Protection Department has blended religious and non-religious bodies and guarantees the right to receive professional relief.
With law no. 225 dated February 24 1992, establishing the National Service of Civil Protection, the voluntary organisations took on the role of “national operative structure” and became an integral part of the public system.
The Civil Protection Department – following administrative decentralisation – stimulates and creates, also in the local authorities, a strong sense of national identity by the Civil Protection volunteers to promote a quick response throughout the territory. The volunteers also integrate with the other territorial levels of intervention envisaged in the organisation of the national system of Civil Protection, on the basis of the principal of vertical subsidiarity. Another actor of the system and of the local territory is: protecting the community in collaboration with the institutions, on the basis of the horizontal subsidiarity principle.
In order to check and test the emergency intervention organisation models, the Department and the Regions promote drills which simulate real risk situations.
The organisations of volunteers participate in the drills promoted by the competent authorities as regards Civil Protection and, as operative structures of the national system of Civil Protection, can also promote and organise relief trials which test the research and intervention capacity.
Il volontariato, come previsto dal Codice di Protezione Civile, decreto lgs n. 1 del 2018, è una delle strutture operative insieme a Vigili del fuoco, forze armate e di polizia, corpo forestale, servizi tecnici e di ricerca scientifica, Croce rossa, Sistema sanitario nazionale e soccorso alpino e speleologico. I volontari costituiscono una delle componenti più vitali del sistema: oltre ottocentomila persone, distribuite sul territorio nazionale, aderiscono a organizzazioni che operano in molteplici settori specialistici.
Nell'elenco nazionale del Dipartimento della Protezione Civile sono iscritte oltre 4.000 organizzazioni, tra cui oltre 3.850 organizzazioni locali in diverse Regioni italiane.
Il ruolo del volontariato è fondamentale durante un'emergenza: la Funzione di supporto Volontariato è fra le prime ad essere attivata e si struttura in una "Segreteria amministrativa" e in un "Coordinamento del volontariato".
La Segreteria gestisce gli arrivi e le partenze dei volontari, la loro dislocazione nelle zone operative, censisce materiali e mezzi, fornisce supporto organizzativo e amministrativo. Il Coordinamento acquisisce e rende esecutive le esigenze della Sala Operativa, convoca e attiva gruppi specializzati, individua le risorse da distribuire al volontariato, si occupa della supervisione logistica delle presenze degli operatori; attiva i coordinamenti nazionali e regionali, si coordina con altri enti e Istituzioni, gestisce la banca dati delle organizzazioni a fini operativi.
In emergenza la Funzione Volontariato si coordina con tutte le altre funzioni di supporto in particolare con le funzioni “assistenza alla popolazione”, “materiali e mezzi” e “telecomunicazioni”.