Participatory Approach for Safe Shelter Awareness (PASSA) is a participatory method of disaster risk reduction (DRR) related to shelter safety. It is a variation of Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST), which has been used by many Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies in water and sanitation programmes since the late 1990s.

The aim of PASSA is to develop local capacity to reduce shelter related risk by raising awareness and developing skills in joint analysis, learning and decision-making at community level.

PASSA is a process, facilitated by volunteers, that guides community groups (called PASSA groups in this manual) through eight participatory activities which enable the participants to do the following progressively:

• Develop their awareness of shelter safety issues in their community
• Identify hazards and vulnerabilities that create risk related to shelter
• Recognize and analyse causes of shelter vulnerability
• Identify and prioritize potential strategies to improve shelter safety
• Make a plan to put those shelter safety strategies into place, based on local capacities
• Monitor and evaluate progress.