Internal Engagement - Is it really so different?

How do we engage those who don't want to be engaged? It is a problem we face with many of our communities - after all a 'bush fire will never impact on me.'

It is also an issue that many of us face with our own brigade members – after all being a fire fighter is really about putting the ‘wet stuff on the hot stuff' in often very trying and difficult conditions ..................isn't it? Many of our members joined to help protect their communities by getting involved in bush fire suppression and hazard reductions - their picture of fire fighting often may not have included community enagement.

Internal engagement has many of the same complexities that can be attributed to community engagement. Engaging internally has so many of the same issues, rewards, benefits and challenges that engaging externally with the community can also present. Some of the challenges that may be similar are;


• Members of our communities have many different competing demands- work, family, sports, home maintenance, family, bills, pets and the list goes on. RFS members also have many competing demands.

• Members of our communities often have their own routines and networks - their own comfortable patterns and ways of doing things. RFS members also have their own networks and comfort zones and getting into something new can be daunting.

• Members of the community will sometimes think it is 'someone else's responsibility' or 'someone else will take care of it'. RFS member will often think the same of getting involved with engaging the community – after all 'that’s the stuff those other people do'.

• Sometimes the way we approach the community does not make it easy for them to become engaged or understand our bush fire safety messages. Sometimes the way we approach RFS members to get their support is too pushy, to complex or too dull that we are actually discouraging their involvement.

• Attending a street meeting, a community meeting or talking to someone they don’t know can be very intimidating for many people in the community. It can also be very uncomfortable for many of our own members as well.


• There is no magic pill, potion or single approach that will guarantee community involvement and actioning of bush fire safety messages. There is no magic pill, potion or single approach that will guarantee a greater number of RFS members becoming actively involved in community engagement. But for both it is about knowing the characteristics, needs, social networks, issues and history of those you wish to become involved with.

Before we start engaging internally, with an aim to increase participation in community engagement, I would suggest a few things;

• Accept that not everyone is suitable to take on a front line role in community engagement and that is absolutely OK.

• Be realistic, slow change is normally more sustainable. So set yourself realistic targets. There may be 20 people active in your brigade. Getting one person to become involved in engagement activities, and stay involved, over a 12 month period is probably a realistic target.

• Be aware that community engagement is not the only RFS activity competing for their time and be respectful of this. 

• Remember that most of the speciality services in the RFS such as catering, communications and even logistics all often have problems getting people involved as well. 

• Know what the level of activity is in your brigade. Is there a time of year, or times in the year, when it is busier than others? Try to engage others at times when it may not be quite as busy. 

• A softly softly approach will normally be better received. Sometimes in our enthusiasm we can actually be a bit full on and this can also be a deterrent to some people.

• Tailor your request for help to that person – more about this further on.


While there are no ‘quick-fixes’ to improving internal engagement, there are ways that you can start to increase the participation internally. 

Make sure the engagement activity you seek involvement in will not be a waste of their time, over whelm them or leave them feeling inadequate. Set them up to succeed, have fun and feel that the time they gave up was well worth the effort. Even roster 2 hour rotations at an event if you can get the numbers


Make sure you are not undertaking what I refer to as 'tick the box' community engagement. As an example I have to display the risk management plan so I get some people to attend the brigade station  where we will display the plan and have some members there to answer questions. We have done this before and know that no one will turn up but well, it is compulsory and I have to put the risk management plan on display. By the way the Brigade station is isolated and not in a place that has a lot of the community passing by.

What is wrong with this scenario? Ohhhh so many things me thinks! Personally I think it is insulting to the members you get to attend the station and insulting to the community whom you have not given a genuine opportunity to view the plan!! This type of approach is guaranteed to limit the number of people who will want to become involve next time you ask for a hand!!!! We will discuss alternatives in a future blog.

Create a list of skills you need and actively seek people who may have these skills. Think outside the box such as;

• computer skills to do a blog
• writing skills to help prepare communication material
• power point skills to help prepare presentations
• a love of photography to come and take some photos of brigade activities that you can use in displays
• carpenter skills to make props

Appreciate members uniqueness and see if you can tailor roles for them. For example someone may lack the confidence to speak with adults but may be fantastic at engaging with children. Others may be have a talent for making models of the local landscape to demonstrate possible bush fire scenarios.

Sell the benefits clearly for operations - use the good street bad street scenario. By relating the benefits of engaging with a community back to their original passion for operations they may be more engaged and supportive. We will write up the good street bad street scenario over the next week and put it up for you. I have shamelessly stolen it from Paul McGrath and his great team in the Blue Mountains.

Consider ways you can use the operational knowledge and local knowledge of your Brigade members to make your engagement activities more interesting for them and the community. For example a tour through nearby bushland or a DIY session on pump maintenance. Your members may have specialist skills you need to tap into.

First events should be short of duration and high impact. Compare a full day manning a stand to a street meeting. Totally different events with different dynamics. 


Two of my favourite people from the Shoalhaven



Ask other people active in Community Engagement what was the turning point for them? What led them to become involved and see if you can pick up any ideas that you can copy to influence people in your own brigade.

Is there a brigade near yours that has a good number of people involved in community engagement? Is there a community engagement event near you that you would like to do something similar too? See if you can grab a couple of the 'influencors' in your brigade and get them to come along and have a look. Discuss how you could do it better with your brigade and utilise that 'competitive friendly nature of competition' that is very strong in many brigades.

Internal engagement takes as much planning as external community engagement. It will often not happen spontaneously when people are busy or patterned a certain way. You need to plan subtle approaches, short term approaches and longer term approaches and you need to be patient and develop your own engagement support network - even if that is on line with other community engagement enthusiasts!

If you have any stories, ideas, personal experiences I would lover o hear them.

Keep have those engaging conversations - they really matter!

Cheers for now

Tanyia