The Danish Civil Protection League

The Danish Civil Protection League is a non-profit organisation working for the safety of the civil population. The league advances from the willingness of Danish citizens to volunteer for the rescue preparedness in Denmark.

The Danish Civil Protection League aims to be the uniting groundwork for the volunteers engaged in the municipal or the national rescue preparedness. The league also serves support members. Moreover the League aims to increase the knowledge of preparedness and prevention among the population and through the education of the population to increase their level of self-preservation and robustness.

The Danish Civil Protection League is a nation wide organisation with 5,000 members, predominantly volunteers in local rescue teams.

The Danish Civil Protection League is involved in training and educating the volunteers in respect of the following measurements: food provisioning and temporary housing, fire service, rescue work, use of rescue dogs, communication, and SAR-teams (Search and Rescue). Additionally the League offers to all members courses in first aid, as well as management courses to a selection of its own members.

Furthermore the League is involved in first aid training of the population, including the capability to extinguish small fires and handle accidental situations before they become major disasters. Moreover the League offers training in the so-called Heart-Starter and mediates between supplier and firms needing a Heart-Starter.

The League arranges an annual summer camp for approximately 180 orphanage children from Poland with the aim of relieving the children from the roughness of everyday and offers them a vacation and some fun.

The history of the Danish Civil Protection League
Commenced in 1934 the Danish Anti-Aircraft Association worked towards civil safety in case of yet another great war. Their primary objective was to prepare the population for an air strike and to teach them how to help others following an attack. The Danish Anti-Aircraft Association was the first Danish rescue preparedness formation and was organised on volunteer civilian efforts. The women joined the Anti-Aircraft Association in 1940 (The Danish Women’s Preparedness). By the end of World War II approximately 12 % of the Danish population volunteered in the Anti-Aircraft Association. The association has over the past decades evolved into the Danish Civil Protection League.  
 
Values and goals in the Danish Civil Protection League
Key values in the Danish Civil Protection League:
o Volunteerness
o Social responsibility
o Community
o Participation
o Safety and security

The goal of the Danish Civil Protection League
Our mission is to represent the volunteers in the Danish rescue preparedness. We are a voluntary organisation working altruistically for the benefit of the society. We create safety through assistance, prevention, information, and education. We organise the volunteers and strengthen volunteerness in the society. 
 
The volunteer engagement
The volunteer in the Danish Civil Protection League carries out assignments in the rescue preparedness in addition to his or her civil occupation.

The Danish Civil Protection League provides the volunteers with professional education in preparedness as well as successive courses. Therefore the volunteers can perform specific task according to their education.

Civilians helping civilians
The Danish Civil Protection League believes that a well educated volunteer resource is a natural part of both the national and municipal rescue preparedness. In face of an unexpected disaster the professional rescue units are not always sufficient, either due to the amount of helpers needed at once or the timely extent of the rescue activities. The volunteers are thus an indispensable supplement.

The volunteers are integrated in their local communities and therefore able to influence their community through politics as well as professional and social relations.

In order to enable the volunteers to react promptly to any crisis or emergency and to encourage the volunteers to engage in ongoing debates on education, assignments and the local community the Danish Civil Protection League has established a nationwide communication chain.
     
The volunteer’s assignments
The volunteer activities involve: rescue preparedness in general, public information about preparedness and security, recruitment of new members, and humanitarian assignments in Denmark and abroad.

The assignments of the volunteers in the Danish Civil Protection League vary accordingly to the specific needs and possibilities in the municipalities. The municipalities base their preparedness on local risk assessment and experiences.

The volunteers undertake a mass of practical assignments at municipal, regional, and national level, especially in case of long-lasting rescue activities in need of numerous personnel. In such instances the volunteers substitute and supplement the professional rescue teams.

Framework agreement
Agreement between Ministry of Defence Denmark and the Danish Civil Protection League

The agreement stipulates that the Danish Civil Protection League should:
o Act as a supplement to the rescue preparedness and the civilian preparedness to the benefit of the citizens. The league should solve assignments at both municipal and national level, maintain cooperation between the preparedness agencies, and keep up information on security and safety to the civil population.
o Create understanding of volunteerness and thereby encourage the civil population to engage in safety measurements in their home environment and further to sign in as volunteer in the safety preparedness.
o Be the uniting groundwork for all volunteers engaged in the rescue preparedness, ensure continues education and organisation of the volunteers regarding the assignments needing to be handled.

The Danish Civil Protection League assumes co-responsibility for the safety and security of the civil population both relating to every crisis, natural or environmental disasters, and in case of acts of terror or war. Likewise the Danish Civil Protection League assumes co-responsibility in solving international humanitarian assignments.  
 
The Danish Preparedness Act
The Danish Preparedness Act entered into force on January 1st 1993. The act establishes that the principal task of the Danish Emergency Management Agency is to manage the National Rescue Preparedness Corps, to supervise the national and municipal rescue preparedness actions and to advice the authorities on matters of preparedness. The national rescue preparedness has a staff of approx. 700 persons, including employed personnel at the Agency’s six rescue centres and three schools. In total approx. 10,000 people are engaged in the rescue preparedness.
The Preparedness Act integrated the former fire service and civil defence into one single-strand rescue preparedness service to be used in peacetime as well as during a crisis and in war. The aim of this integration was, and still is, to ensure a preparedness that is capable of intervening swiftly and flexibly in response to all types of accidents and disasters. Additionally, the total defence structure affects that the police, the military, the civil preparedness, and thus the rescue preparedness are linked together in case of large scale crisis.
According to the Preparedness Act the responsibility for emergency services lies with the local authorities. The municipal rescue preparedness shall through effective planning be able to remedy any damage inflicted on people, property, and environment by accidents or disasters. The municipalities are responsible for maintaining a rescue preparedness of sufficient strength to carry out fire fighting and to combat accidents involving hazardous materials.
 
The organisational and legal structure of the Danish Civil Protection League
The financial expenditures are covered by sale of services and products, private funding, and state financial aid. However, the Danish Civil Protection League is political independent.
Assignments within the League are solved in accordance to the framework agreement with the Ministry of Defence Denmark, performance contract with the Danish Emergency Management Agency, and agreements with municipalities using volunteers in their rescue preparedness.  

The Danish Civil Protection League counts 75 localized districts; these districts cover 85 of Denmark’s 98 municipalities. The decision to involve volunteers in emergency management lies in the respective municipalities (The Preparedness Act). In case several municipalities are cooperating on their emergency planning, the respective volunteer sections will do so as well.
The management of the Danish Civil Protection League holds a political division, managed by the president and vice president, an organisational division, managed by the National Executive and the National vice Executive, and an administrative division, managed by the administrative director.
 

Links and contact

The Danish Emergency Management Agency
www.beredskabsstyrelsen.dk/uk/index.htm

The Swedish Civil Defence League
http://civil.se/#/om_oss/index

Voluntary Activities towards improved Civil Protection in Europe
www.vacpe.eu

REDE - National Association of Civil Protection Volunteers
www.rede-anvpc.pt

Do you have any comments or questions regarding the Danish Civil Protection League?
Would you like your civil protection group to be linked on this website?
Please write us an email: bf @ beredskab.dk