Date & time: Monday, 27 October 2025 · 16:00–17:00 CET
Format: Online · Free to attend
Who it’s for: Researchers, practitioners, first responders, civil protection, heritage and community organisations

When crises hit, protecting people’s wellbeing is as important as restoring infrastructure. RESILIAGE invites you to a one-hour online webinar exploring what wellbeing really means before, during, and after disruptive events, and how culture and heritage can help communities recover and thrive. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the project draws on insights from environmental psychology, heritage studies, and community engagement experts.

Participants will hear first-hand testimonies from the RESILIAGE first responders, complemented by a clear conceptual framing of wellbeing in crises. This framework will highlight key definitions, data insights, and the role of cultural and natural heritage. The session will also showcase practical tools and methods developed within the project — from citizen involvement and training approaches to strategies for fostering community engagement — aimed at strengthening resilience and supporting communities in times of crisis.

What to expect

(Agenda subject to changes)

• Welcome remarks (POLITO & UNESCO)
    • Introduction to RESILIAGE project by the coordinator of project, Professor Rosa Tamborrino (Polytechnic of Turin, Italy

• Wellbeing and crises: testimonies from the first responders
    • Norwegian Red Cross
    • Portuguese National School of Firefighters

• Conceptual explanation of Wellbeing during crises (University of Nîmes, France)
    • Concise definitions—crisis, wellbeing, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) —and a snapshot of key data.

• Heritage and Wellbeing: Insights from the RESILIAGE project (Polytechnic of Turin, Italy)
    • What the literature and our case studies show on the importance of heritage during crises.

• Enhancing Wellbeing through training  (DeepBlue)
    • Methodologies for citizen involvement you can adopt tomorrow.

• Q&A & takeaways
    • Your questions answered, plus a quick recap you can share with colleagues.

Speakers & contributors

• Lodovico Folin Calabi was appointed as UNESCO Representative to the European Union in March 2025. Prior to this, he served as Senior Crisis Coordinator at UNESCO Headquarters, leading the organization’s overall response to the war in Ukraine (2022-2024) and was Chief of Taskforce in the Director-General’s Cabinet (2019-2022), supervising the Organisation’s flagship recovery and reconstruction initiatives Revive the Spirit of Mosul (since 2019) and Li Beirut (since2020), coordinating the large-scale efforts for the reconstruction and recovery of the Old City of Mosul in Iraq and of Beirut after the August 2020 blast. He has been UNESCO Representative to Palestine and Head of the UNESCO National Office for Palestine from 2014 to 2019. From 2012 until 2014, he was the UNESCO Representative to Libya and Head of the UNESCO Project Office in Tripoli, where he coordinated the reactivation of UNESCO’s overall development cooperation with Libya after the 2011 conflict.  
• Prof. Rosa Tamborrino is Full Professor of History of Architecture and Heritage at Politecnico di Torino University. She is appointed as the Coordinator of the “Vera Comoli Study Centre for History Heritage & Inclusive Innovation“. She is the Coordinator of the HORIZON Europe CL3 2022- DRS 01-04 Research Project ‘RESILIAGE Advancing holistic understanding of community RESILIence and cultural natural heritAGE drivers through community-based methodologies’ (2023-2026). She is a Director of the Joint Summer School Program POLITO-UCLA “Cultural Heritage in Context Digital Technologies for the Humanities“ (from 2016). Prof. Tamborrino holds numerous leadership roles in research and education, including being a board member of the European Association of Urban History (EAUH) and visiting professorships at institutions such as UCLA, EHESS Paris, and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Among recent publications, she contributed to Strengthening all-of-society approaches for disaster resilient societies through competency building: A European research agenda. In: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. She is author of “From ‘Delayed’ to Slow: Cities in Southern Europe (Italy and Iberia) from the Mid-Nineteenth Century”, in The Cambridge Urban History of Europe, Volume III. 
• Marita Hoel Fossen is the Managing Director of Trondheim Red Cross, where she leads efforts in humanitarian work, social inclusion, search and rescue and emergency preparedness. With a strong commitment to building resilient communities, she has represented the organization in international projects like ENGAGE and RESILIAGE, which develop innovative approaches to crisis management and citizen engagement. Trondheim Red Cross is a key actor in strengthening both local and regional readiness for emergencies.
• Vitor Reis is currently a Project Manager at the National Firefighters School (Escola Nacional de Bombeiros) in Portugal. He has an operational background in firefighting and extensive experience in firefighter training and vocational education. He holds a PhD in Education with a specialization in Distance Education and E-learning. He has presented at national and international conferences and seminars, and served as an expert in several European projects related to firefighter training and civil protection. 
• Aude Naud obtained her PhD in environmental psychology from Nantes University, France, and currently works as a research engineer at the University of Nîmes, France. Her work focuses on adaptation to environmental risks, their perception, and communication at all stages of risk management. In particular, she uses new technologies such as eye tracking, physiological measurements, and virtual reality to exploit implicit measures and study situations of direct exposure to a threat.
• Giulia Mezzalama is Senior Assistant Professor of History of Architecture in The Interuniversity Department of Regional & Urban Studies and Planning at the Politecnico di Torino (Italy), PhD in History and Critics of Architectural and Environmental Heritage Program. Her research interests include the role of cultural heritage in social innovation processes, urban and architectural history, and digital humanities. She is Deputy Director of the Executive Master ‘Culture and Health’ promoted by Cultural Welfare Centre, an interdisciplinary center on expertise on Culture and Health.
• Veronika Takacs is a human factors expert dedicated to building more effective and resilient emergency response systems. At Deep Blue, she applies her knowledge of Work and Organizational Psychology to improve how operational teams coordinate and communicate with various types of actors, ultimately helping them succeed in critical moments.

Why join?

• Ground your programmes in evidence-based wellbeing practices
• Discover replicable methods for citizen engagement and training
• Learn how heritage can strengthen preparedness, connection and recovery
• Take away practical tools you can use in your organisation

Register

Save your spot now – it’s free and open to all. Register here!