When disaster strikes, communities need to act quickly.
People need reliable information. Volunteers need to know where help is needed. Local organisations need to coordinate. Vulnerable residents need support. Decisions often have to be made with limited time and incomplete information.
But one of the most important lessons from recent crises in Czechia is that the ability to respond well often depends on relationships that were built long before the emergency began.
A recent EU CAP Network article, published on 14 September 2026, examined how Czech Local Action Groups responded to a series of very different challenges, including the COVID 19 pandemic, a destructive tornado in South Moravia, the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and severe flooding along the Czech Polish border.
Despite the different nature of each crisis, one factor repeatedly helped communities respond: trust.
The Local Action Groups had already developed strong relationships with municipalities, businesses, civil society organisations and residents. When emergencies occurred, those existing networks allowed people to mobilise resources, communicate and coordinate more quickly.
https://eu-cap-network.ec.europa.eu/news/trust-crisis-how-czech-lags-build-resilient-communities_en
When we think about disaster preparedness, we often think first about physical resources.
Emergency supplies, evacuation routes, warning systems, shelters and communication technology are all important.
But preparedness also has a social dimension.
Do residents know which organisations they can trust?
Do community groups know how to contact one another?
Are local authorities already connected with grassroots organisations?
Do people know where reliable information will come from during an emergency?
Strong relationships can make these questions easier to answer.
The Czech experience shows why community networks should not be treated as something that only becomes important after disaster strikes. They are part of the infrastructure that helps communities prepare.
Local organisations often understand their communities in ways that larger institutions cannot.
They may know which households contain older or isolated residents, which community buildings could become support points, who has useful skills or equipment, and which communication channels local people are most likely to trust.
This knowledge can become extremely valuable during a crisis.
The Czech Local Action Groups highlighted by the EU CAP Network were able to act as connectors between municipalities, businesses, civil society and residents because those relationships already existed.
That lesson is highly relevant beyond Czechia.
Across Europe, communities are facing floods, wildfires, storms, earthquakes, environmental emergencies and other forms of disruption. While the hazards may differ, the importance of local cooperation remains constant.
Trust becomes particularly important when information is moving quickly.
During emergencies, people may encounter warnings, rumours, conflicting advice and misinformation at the same time.
Clear communication from trusted sources can help communities understand what is happening and what they should do next.
This is one reason why Communication, Information and Community Trust is one of the four central categories within the RISE Digital Toolbox.
The Toolbox brings together practical digital resources that communities can use before, during and after emergencies. These include tools for official warnings, multilingual communication, fact checking, offline messaging and community information sharing.
But digital tools are most effective when people already know who they are communicating with and why that information can be trusted.
Technology can support community relationships. It cannot replace them.
The experience of Czech communities reflects a central idea behind the RISE Resilient Communities project.
RISE was created to help communities become better prepared for crises, more confident in their response and stronger in their recovery. The project combines adult education, digital learning and community led approaches so that educators, local leaders and grassroots organisations can turn resilience knowledge into practical action.
Rather than waiting until an emergency occurs, RISE encourages communities to build capacity in advance.
This means understanding local risks, strengthening communication, learning from previous disasters and knowing which resources can be used when normal systems are disrupted.
The project's resources are designed to support exactly this process.
The Best Practice Guide brings together lessons from real disaster recovery experiences.
The Case Study Compendium explores how different communities have responded to events including floods, storms, earthquakes, wildfires, environmental disasters and conflict.
The Digital Toolbox provides accessible tools for preparedness, communication, coordination and long term recovery.
Together, these resources help communities move from simply knowing that risks exist to thinking practically about how they would respond.
Preparing a community does not always require expensive infrastructure.
Sometimes it starts with much simpler questions.
Who are the trusted organisations in our community?
Who would coordinate volunteers?
How would we reach people who do not use social media?
Where would residents look for reliable information?
Do community organisations and local authorities already know how to work together?
Are important local contacts recorded somewhere accessible?
Discussing these questions before an emergency can reveal gaps that might otherwise only become visible during a crisis.
This is also where adult educators and community leaders have an important role.
Community workshops, training sessions and preparedness exercises can bring people together before disaster strikes. They create opportunities to share knowledge, identify local strengths and make new connections.
In this sense, learning itself becomes part of resilience.
Being personally prepared for a crisis matters.
But resilient communities need more than prepared individuals.
They need people who can cooperate.
They need trusted networks.
They need local knowledge.
They need organisations capable of connecting resources with the people who need them.
The Czech experience demonstrates that these capabilities do not appear overnight. They are built gradually through cooperation, participation and trust.
This is why RISE places community led action at the centre of disaster preparedness and recovery.
Disasters will always create uncertainty.
We cannot know exactly when the next flood, storm, wildfire or other emergency will occur.
But communities can strengthen the relationships and skills that will shape how they respond.
The lesson from Czechia is simple but important:
trust built today can become a critical resource tomorrow.
By investing in communication, local networks, education and community participation before emergencies happen, communities can be better placed to respond quickly, support one another and recover more strongly.
That is the kind of resilience RISE is working to build across Europe.
RISE Digital Toolbox:
https://resilientcommunitiesrise.eu/digital-toolbox/
RISE resources:
https://resilientcommunitiesrise.eu/resources/
RISE project:
https://resilientcommunitiesrise.eu/
