Ichigaya】Hajimari no 1pp Cafe - Disaster Prevention Awareness Event was held (May 12)

This year was the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and we thought it would be important to create an opportunity to reconsider disaster prevention in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes and how we should act if a similar earthquake were to occur. Utilizing the "Hajimari no 1pp Cafe," where people think, talk, and act about social issues and volunteer activities that have a "stiff" or "serious" image, just like chatting with friends at a cafe, VSP and Team Orange jointly organized a project in which 21 students discussed disaster prevention with the aim of reviewing it.

0Preparations leading up to the day of the planning

At a meeting held at the beginning of March, a detailed theme for "Disaster Awareness" was proposed. The three themes decided on were: "How to communicate to the generation that does not know about the disaster," "What you can do to help yourself and others in the event of a disaster," and "What should we prepare for a disaster? The three themes were: "What should we tell the generation that doesn't know about the earthquake? We also decided who would be in charge of each of these questions and set the schedule for the day of the event. We distributed preliminary materials to the participating students in advance, asked them to focus on one theme of interest, and decided on the direction of conducting the event in a small group of four or five people. Meetings were held about once every two weeks to confirm each person's position, exchange opinions, assign roles and responsibilities, and confirm the flow of the day's activities, with a rehearsal as the final confirmation.

On the day of the event

12:20 Slide presentation
12:25 Opening remarks
12:30 Self-introductions in the breakout room (ice-breaking building blocks)
12:35 Discussion begins
12:50 Opinion sharing by each group in the main room
12:55 Write the first step
12:57 Nominate one person for each theme to share their first step
13:00 Photography
13:01 Share QR code of each SNS, ask for survey, and end

Reflections and positive points

Points on reflection: Time was not enough, and the timekeeper skills that were entrusted to one person were weak. Also, depending on the group, there were areas where there was a café feel and other areas where there was not, such as the format where the facilitator and participants talked one by one. It was difficult to feel the temperature without face-to-face meetings, and I felt that the themes could have been more detailed.

Good points: The detailed theme was decided and materials were distributed in advance, so participants had prior knowledge of the theme, and the small breakout room allowed discussion in a small group, which was good for creating a comfortable atmosphere for talking. We were able to hear participants' opinions in the questionnaire, and many of them felt that their awareness of "disaster awareness" had changed, that they wanted to take the initiative in doing something, and that they would like to participate in such a project again, which made us happy to have conducted this project. (Volunteer Center Student Staff Team Orange, Ayumi Tokiwa, 2nd year student, Department of GeographyFaculty of Letters )

Impressions from students who planned the event

Participating in the Hajimari no 1pp Cafe Disaster Prevention Awareness Program enabled me to think about disaster prevention from multiple perspectives. Some of the participants had actually been to the disaster area and some had not, and we were able to think about the meaning and ways of conveying the disaster to future generations from different perspectives. It was great to talk with people who had different experiences from me and from different generations, and to gain perspectives that I had never had before. (Volunteer Center Student Staff Team Orange: Hiraki Toyama, 3rd-year student in Department of ArchitectureFaculty of Engineering and Design )

I worked as a facilitator for the preparation of materials and the discussion on the day of the event, but I felt that time was a strong constraint overall. I think that if we could connect to the discussion part more smoothly, we would be able to have more in-depth discussions in a shorter period of time. In addition, I felt again how difficult it is to create a relaxed atmosphere in an online setting, because my progression did not have the feel of a café, but rather was more like a project. (Volunteer Center Student Staff Team Orange, 2nd year student in Department of Political ScienceFaculty of Law YUKI KAWAI)

Comments from participating students

I strongly felt that "disasters cannot be prevented, but they can be prepared for. Until I participated in this event, I had thought that disaster awareness was simply about preparing disaster prevention goods and confirming evacuation sites. However, I now feel that disaster awareness is not just about that, but also about how to prepare for what would happen if a disaster actually occurred and how to deal with the situation. It is not enough for me to know these things by myself; it is necessary for everyone in the community, including my family, to have this kind of awareness. (Kana Muraishi, 1st year Department of Law student, Faculty of Law )

I participated in a meeting to discuss disaster preparedness. I learned a lot from the opinions raised in the discussion, many of which I had never thought of before. For example, it is well-known to prepare canned food as emergency rations, but yokan (sweet jelly) was also introduced as a nutritious food that lasts for a long time. I would like to participate in such events in the future, as it is very useful to hear other people's opinions in order to broaden one's own views. (Ryouhei Sugawara, 3rd year student Department of HistoryFaculty of Letters )