Build community resilience through culture and leisure

Events as cornerstones for building a strong channel

A lot happens in a municipality – from concerts to storytelling hours at the library.
By integrating the municipality’s event calendar directly into the Citizen App, you not only create a vibrant and dynamic platform for your residents, but also build a strong communication channel.

By offering information about cultural and leisure activities, you encourage downloads and regular use of the Citizen App.

And every event becomes an opportunity for residents to grow familiar with the app as a trusted source of information.

From interest to preparedness

Building preparedness isn’t just about getting ready for the worst. It’s about creating systems that work in everyday life.

By using the Citizen App’s wide range of purposes – from culture to crisis information – you lay the foundation for being able to use your existing communication tools creatively in a crisis situation.

When residents already use the app to find activities and local information, you have the foundation to reach out quickly in an emergency. A channel that’s alive in everyday life also becomes credible and effective when it truly matters.

Steps you can take to build a strong channel through culture and leisure

• Engage the local community and associations:
  Collaborate with local clubs and cultural actors to spread the word about the app and include more of the people and organizations residents care about.
  
  Aim to gather all municipal events in one place. Let associations enter their own events into the calendar – or use automatic fetching from their websites or Facebook pages.
  
  
• Promote active use:
  Encourage residents to download and use the app by offering exclusive content related to cultural and leisure events. Be clear that this is the place to go for everything happening in your municipality.
  
  
• Practice regularly:
  Use the app often to communicate what’s going on. This builds trust and habits.
  
  Examples of what you can send out:
  - Push notifications about what’s happening this weekend – ideally personalized by interest or location.
  
  - Send a push to families with children about everything happening during autumn/winter/summer breaks.
  
  - Hosting a market or festival? Send a push.
  
  - Is your local sports team playing an important match? Get your community cheering for them with a push!
  
  Bonus tip: Give the Culture and Leisure department access to the push tool.
  They’re the ones with their ear to the ground – they know what’s happening. And your communication team saves time.

Here’s a final cliché: together we are strong

By thinking of culture and leisure as part of preparedness, we can give residents a better everyday life, give associations and cultural actors the visibility they deserve, and as a bonus, build a strong communication channel.

Our goal is to create more connected local communities – not only ready to face crises, but also meeting and getting to know each other at the football match or the local theatre.

People who are part of something and know each other: that’s what we call community resilience.