Empowering Communities through Open Source Creative Solutions for Crisis Preparedness and Humanitarian Innovation

forthcoming

As Europe faces intensifying, overlapping crises—including climate disasters, geopolitical conflict, and public health emergencies—the Preparedness Union Strategy (2025) has prioritised the development of a universal 72-hour survival kit for all EU households. Yet both this kit and the widely used Core Relief Items (CRIs), developed by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), for global humanitarian response, remain largely single-use, difficult to repair, and environmentally unsustainable. Despite having the necessary innovation skills, cultural and creative sector (CCS) professionals remain excluded from civil protection and humanitarian design ecosystems. Open Relief addresses this critical gap by placing CCS professionals at the centre of preparedness innovation. The project empowers them to collaborate with humanitarian workers and community members to co-develop 11 open-source design objects—including water filters, modular shelters, and repairable preparedness tools. These solutions will be scalable, locally replicable, environmentally sustainable, and freely distributed to more than 1,000 humanitarian NGOs across Europe and Ukraine. Operating in Ukraine, Croatia, and Greece, the project draws on each country’s distinct expertise: Ukraine’s frugal, citizen-led innovation under conflict; Croatia’s post-conflict recovery; and Greece’s frontline refugee response experience. Through multidisciplinary workshops and field testing, Open Relief will train 150 artists, 100 humanitarian workers, and 300 community members in humanitarian design, frugal innovation, and crisis literacy. A digital campaign will generate over 500,000 impressions, raising public awareness of CCS contributions to resilience and highlighting Creative Europe’s leadership in preparedness innovation. Open Relief reimagines preparedness as a CCS-led, community-inclusive process—where affected citizens not only survive the first 72 hours but recover, adapt, and thrive beyond them.