Kohtla-Järve is a city in Ida-Viru county, East-Estonia with a population of more than 35 000 people, the local government is making a significant contribution to crisis preparedness. We met with Mayor Henri Kaselo, Senior Communications Specialist Kristina Piirimaa and the newly appointed crisis specialist from the city government to discuss the needs of the region’s civil defence.

“The meeting with the Kohtla-Järve municipality was important for us to understand the needs and expectations of the city’s civil defence. Kohtla-Järve has already taken important steps to increase the civil defence capacity in the region and we are grateful that we can cooperate in this area,” said Hannes Nagel, CEO of the NGO Crisis Research Centre.

From April 2024, the Crisis Research Centre is preparing a capacity building project for community based, bottom-up civil defence in Kohtla-Järve, which will also focus on empowering members of housing associations through various types of training. A similar project is currently underway in Tallinn, based at Kopli 93 community centre – read more about it here.

🧡 We are grateful to the Kohtla-Järve City Government for finding the time to meet.

Photo: May 2 meeting (Crisis Research Centre, 2024).