Community engagement producing tangible, positive impacts

CFA file photo

 

It’s an exciting time for CFA members delivering community engagement. We are already seeing the tangible, positive impacts from our Smoke Alarm Installation Program and in August we will get together for the first in-person statewide Community Engagement Forum since COVID-19.

 

Update from Head of Community Preparedness Lucy Saaroni

CFA's Community Engagement State Forum in August

Get ready for an amazing two days of networking, learning and fun because the 2023 Community Engagement State Forum is happening on 19 and 20 August in San Remo. For the first time since COVID-19, hundreds of CFA members will convene to improve our community engagement practice. Our focus for this year’s forum is to support and develop the volunteer role of the Brigade Community Safety Coordinator (BCSC). The forum will include an interactive workshop where BCSCs will create an evidence-based community engagement delivery plan and take it back to their brigade for implementation.

Applications to attend have closed but get in touch with your Community Engagement Coordinator if you would like to attend a future forum.

It's been fantastic to see the uptake of the Smoke Alarm Installation Program in our brigades and districts.

Our free Smoke Alarm Installation Program targets households most vulnerable to fires and  connects our members to residents who need help obtaining and installing working smoke alarms. The program sees our members provide fire blankets and home fire safety information.

And there are some great examples of this program in action.

Smoke alarm installation ‘blitzes’ have been occurring in communities across the state. Community Engagement Coordinator Jodie Burt together with Community Liaison officers from the South East Region installed more than 30 smoke alarms in 17 homes in Buchan and surrounds alone over a two-day blitz in late March. Members from Bairnsdale, Sale, Gormandale, Paynesville, Johnsonville, Maffra, Mt Taylor and Bemm River have also completed training to deliver the program in their communities as part of the rollout of the program.

Members are also developing new local partnerships to efficiently deliver this vital program to households in isolated areas such as bush nursing centres and neighbourhood houses. Members of District 10 have worked with Dargo Bush Nursing Centre to provide free smoke alarm installation to vulnerable residents, with members finding many homes that didn’t have any smoke alarms, and others that were not working or installed in incorrect locations. 

We continue to work with corporate partners like RACV to access additional funding to support the rollout of the program. To find out more about the program, contact your district Community Engagement Coordinator.

We have successfully lobbied industry and state and federal agencies for improvements to regulations and practice around home fire safety.

Solar Victoria has agreed to make smoke alarms in garages a requirement for households receiving solar subsidies from July 2023. Large home builder, Access Living is also committing to install hundreds of sprinklers in their new homes in the next two years.

We also led a joint submission to the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care on the My Aged Care Reform. Four independent recommendations were made and if implemented will reduce residential fire fatalities and other impacts of house fires on people receiving My Aged Care.

We have recently released new guidelines to support you to engage with our communities.

Our Community Engagement Approach is now supported by guidelines to enable anyone at CFA to deliver high-quality community engagement services. The guidelines, which are available on Members Online, include step-by-step processes, templates, contacts and links. We are currently printing hard copy and postcard versions which will be distributed to brigades via their District Office.  

These are just a few examples of the great work happening across the state in the community preparedness space. Thank you again to our volunteers and staff for their work to build relationships and empower their communities to be safer and more resilient, before, during and after an emergency.  

 

Submitted by	Lucy Saaroni, Head of Community Preparedness