At the “Protect and Secure Worship” International Conference in Nicosia, Cyprus, Marcin Podogrocki and Rafał Batkowski represented the Prosperes project during a panel discussion and various workshops. The conference was organised through Protecting places of worship and PROSECUW. Other EU Internal Security Fund – Police projects were present as well, introducing their findings and innovations at the conference.

Successful protection of places of worship is all about building intercultural and interreligious communities, and collaborative effort. By doing so, places of worship become better protected and more resilient, whilst still remaining the welcoming spaces that they have been for centuries.

On November 29th-30th, 2022, the consortium partners met in Nicosia, CY at the General Assembly meeting complemented by a successful networking meeting with stakeholders in a form of panel discussion “Protection of Religious Sites from Terrorist Attacks”. The events were organized by CARDET – Center for the Advancement of Research & Development in Educational Technology and University of Lodz.

The consortium meeting allows partners to monitor the project progress, the development of the results and to plan the next activities till the end of the project in November 2023. Currently, the works are focused on completing WP3: Preparing the tailor-made security measures for religious sites and WP4: Preparedness for CBRN protection. The main results including: Report on best practices, gaps and needs, Security by design guidebook for religious sites, Guidebook with procedures and tools to prevent, protect, respond and mitigate the result of the terrorist attack as well as Guidelines with basic information on CBRN threats and scenarios collection with reactions’ models. The set of the measures including user-friendly tools like VAT Lite for vulnerability assessment, CBRN scenarios models to identify relevant preventive and response measures or the checklist and the tools to identify gaps in the current protection in the places of worship. The results will be available soon for free use by everyone interested in increasing the protection of places of worship.

The partners discussed the next step about preparing the training materials and conduct the pilot training and large-scale exercises as well as activities and events of the Awareness Rising Campaign. Follow the progress of ProSPeReS on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter or YouTube Channel.

The work of the consortium partners of the ProSPeReS project is in progress. The innovative ProSPeReS project aiming at enhancing the security at places of worship, funded by the European Union, has entered the consultation phase, in which it is necessary to obtain the feedback from representatives of religious communities. This time, experts from partners 6 EU countries met in The Hague, the Netherlands at the workshop organized by DISSS , to present the current project’s developments in measures for increasing the protection and discuss it with the “end-users”. Experts, representatives of services responsible for security and public order as well as leaders of religious communities discussed the prepared recommendations for reducing the possibility of unwanted incidents at places of worship – taking into account the risks associated with a potential terrorist attack.

On the first day, leaders of the activities in WP3: Preparing the tailor-made security measures for religious sites and WP4: Preparedness for CBRN protection presented the guidelines, procedures, recommendations and tools elaborated in the project. Then , during the interactive part the participants discussed issues related to administration and management of the religious sites, preparing effective ways to respond to a security threats and designing a secure space for worshippers and pointed out gaps and weaknesses in existing solutions. The lively discussion was accompanied by a search for effective ways to mitigate actual and potential threats. The invited guests, who were leaders and representatives  of religious communities, including the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Jewish Communities, the Evangelic Church in Finland and Muslim Communities  expressed their opinions on the implemented solutions. The workshop provided several valuable insights, which will be taken into account at a further stage of the ongoing work.

On the second day of the session, a working meeting of the coordinators of the various work packages was held, at which they discussed, among other things, the shape of the future guide containing a set of recommendations, which are especially dedicated for the administrators of religious facilities. Then the workshop participants had the opportunity to visit religious facilities in The Hague, which is a multi-religious city inhabited by representatives of various religions.

An extensive Stakeholder Workshop was held in Tallinn, Estonia, from August 29 to September 1, 2022. The purpose of the events was to raise awareness among Estonians about the goals and results of the ISFP EU – Prossperes project. The project was represented at the event on behalf of the Project Leader by Pro Dean Prof. Michal Bijak, University of Lodz, Prof. Adrian Siadkowski WSB University and CEO Dr. Timo Hellenberg, Hellenberg International.

The project’s goals and available products for stakeholders and end users were presented at meetings at the Estonian Ministry of Culture, where Anne-Ly Reimaa, head of international relations, received the project delegation, and at St. Mary’s Cathedral (Toomkirik) with Dean Arho Tuhkru.