Swedish churches as emergency meeting points
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Karlstads Stift |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 1 500 000 |
| Project duration | June 2022 - November 2024 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | The transformation of civil society |
| Call | Civil society´s solutions to climate transition. Innovation and cross-sectorial collaboration to reach the swedish climate goals |
Important results from the project
The project "Swedish churches as emergency meeting points" has brought together research, public sector and the Church of Sweden with aim of strengthening local preparedness through cooperation and the use of flowing energy sources. A model for collaboration around local preparedness has been developed, which includes material for workshops in various thematic areas. Three meeting points have been established, one of which has solar energy and batteries that can be set into off-grid mode. A national scan of the risk exposure of all Church of Sweden´ buildings has been carried out.
Expected long term effects
The project has shown that security can be created locally and be based on renewable energy sources. Closer cooperation between public actors and civil society has strengthened the local preparedness. The Church of Sweden´s leading role during extraordinary events has been identified as particularly important from a management perspective. Through risk analysis of the church´s buildings, suitable locations have been identified. A number of emergency meeting points have also been created in other places in Sweden as a result of the project.
Approach and implementation
The project has been executed according to plan with a slight delay. A number of factors have affected the project, such as the exchange of key persons in the parishes, a changed world situation with the invasion of Ukraine and a cyber attack that hit the Church of Sweden. The war in Ukraine increased the relevance for the project and gained relevance and therefore more media attention. However that also increased the participants´ workload. The cyber attack on the Church of Sweden delayed the project as the internal church network was not fully functioning.