Youth Resilience Relays

The Youth Resilience Relay is an engaging and interactive educational challenge specifically designed to involve young Filipinos actively in disaster preparedness, resilience thinking, and teamwork. This activity aligns with the 2025 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) theme, "Fund Resilience, Not Disasters," by promoting proactive investment in knowledge and skills that reduce disaster risks before they occur. Through dynamic team-based challenges and problem-solving exercises, participants learn to anticipate, prepare for, and respond effectively to various hazards, thereby building a culture of resilience within their communities.

The relay's theme, "Empowering Future Leaders in Disaster Preparedness for Stronger Communities," reflects the core objective of fostering leadership among the youth as critical agents of change in disaster risk reduction. By equipping them with practical competencies and a resilience mindset, the relay seeks to strengthen community-based disaster preparedness and ensure sustainable development protected from the escalating costs of disasters. Ultimately, the goal of the Youth Resilience Relay is to formally recognize these young participants by endorsing them to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) as Accredited Community Disaster Volunteers (ACDVs). This endorsement helps institutionalize their role as active contributors to localized risk reduction efforts, bridging the gap between youth engagement and national DRR strategies, and supporting the wider global call to fund resilience rather than merely respond to disasters.