Task and problem

More and more people are deciding to help spontaneously in the event of major disasters such as floods or in refugee aid. They don't just want to donate money or relief supplies. They want to get involved themselves. This was impressively demonstrated not least by the flood disaster on the Ahr in July 2021. KatHelfer-PRO has been developed for them.

Approach and technical implementation

KatHelfer-PRO makes it possible to involve people more quickly, easily and in a more targeted manner, while avoiding conflicts and disappointments at the places of deployment. IT solutions have been in place since the floods in Central Europe in 2013, examples are “Kubas”, “Ensure” and “Resibes”. Although according to recent studies, more than two-thirds of the members of public authorities and organizations with security tasks (BOS) see a clear need for technical solutions to support the coordination of spontaneous volunteers [1], it has not yet been possible to transfer individual approaches into the application.

This is precisely where KatHelfer-PRO comes in. In this joint project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as a practical lighthouse project for civil security, a broad consortium of various partner organizations from civil protection, science and industry is developing a joint socio-technical solution for coordinating spontaneous volunteers in crisis and disaster situations.

Building on the research results of recent years, the focus is on developing solutions with a high degree of maturity so that the results can be quickly implemented nationwide. The core element is an IT system for linking spontaneous volunteers with professionally managed operations. The central component of the KatHelfer PRO system automates the continuous matching of offers of help from spontaneous volunteers and the needs of the emergency services. Instead of developing another app for spontaneous volunteers, the system offers interfaces for connecting various warning and helper systems (such as the apps KATRETTER, KATWARN, NINA and MobileHelfer), but also frequently used instant messengers (e.g. WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger). The system is designed to serve as a central communication channel between the emergency services and the population. On the emergency services side, the system also offers open interfaces for connecting to existing command and staff support systems, so that work can be carried out without system interruption and with minimal training.

A special feature of KatHelfer-PRO will be the simple registration of spontaneous helpers. Potential helpers can register on the platform via their preferred app or messenger and indicate their skills, availability and experience. This will create a comprehensive database that enables the control centers to quickly access qualified helpers.

The platform allows the crisis teams, the operations management or the control centers to send important information in real time to spontaneous helpers. This includes information such as the location of the operation, the tasks at hand or the skills required. At the same time, volunteers can update their availability and status, so that the control centers always have an accurate picture of the available resources. The integration and coordination of spontaneous volunteers with the work of professional responders is simplified with the help of complex mediation algorithms, thus enabling the relief of the deployed forces. The security of the processed data is guaranteed by the reliable cloud infrastructure of the user partner and consortium leader T-Systems.