OBJECTIVE

Develop Civil Defence capabilities to enhance individual and communal resilience

WHAT WE DID

ARK developed its approach to Civil Defence in Syria in 2012, creating the search and rescue teams that are now known to the world as the White Helmets. In 2014 the programme expanded to support the development of a Palestinian Civil Defence capability in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon. Involvement with Civil Defence has provided young refugees with an opportunity to demonstrate personal agency, reinforce a sense of purpose and reject narratives of victimisation, marginalisation and hopelessness. The effect on vulnerable young people involved in the project has been transformative, helping those who were at risk of becoming further drawn into criminality, armed violence or extremism to choose instead to become positive examples of community service in their communities.

From life-saving search and rescue operations in theatres of conflict and supporting youth-focused preventing and countering violent extremism efforts, countering the appeal of criminality, anti-social behaviour, drugs, violence and negative coping mechanisms, to a conduit for demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration initiatives, Civil Defence has broad utility as a humanitarian, development and stabilisation intervention.