Bush Fire Survival Plan - be honest, have you read it?

Hi there,

At the recent Community Engagement forums we have been spending a fair bit of time talking about our products and the tendency to use 'fire fighters jargon'. When you talk about a subject regularly it is easy to forget how difficult it can be for someone with little or no fire experience to understand words that you use all the time. We have had some really good discussions around some of these words and phrases such as:

• bush fire prone land
• ember attack
• APZ
• fuel and fuel load
• asset
• treatments



Have YOU read this document?

 What has really surprised, and yes alarmed and even confounded me, is how very few of our members are familiar with our Bush Fire Survival Plan. I am still coming across groups of members who have not yet seen the new booklet.


How can we communicate with you more effectively about new tools and products? I would love to hear any suggestions on how we can improve communications, especially about new products and community engagement events such as the regional forums and road shows.


For any of us working with the community on bush fire safety, the Bush Fire Survival Plan should be our main resource tool. It is the document we need to know back to front and upside down. The messages in this document are absolutely core to what we do.




Do you know what order you may receive these?

 

How is YOUR knowledge? Do you know how many plans are actually in the Bush Fire Survival Plan? Do you know the importance of triggers when developing a plan? Do you know what PREPARE. ACT. SURVIVE. means?

There has been a lot of change to our products such as the Bush Fire Survival Plan, Neighbourhood Safer Places, Fire Danger Ratings and even the Emergency Survival kit we now recommend. It is a hard task to stay up to date and to use jargon free language when our products can be very complex - but it is a challenge we need to embrace and encourage each other to actively try to master.

What ways can we improve our product knowledge?

• read the Bush Fire Survival Plan - even one page a week
• pick a page in the Bush Fire Survival Plan and discuss it with your family - how do they interpret it, or your brigade - encourage the discussion
• speak to your Fire Control Centre to see what information they have
• have a look at our new fact sheets
• join our community engagement Facebook page RFS NSW Community Engagement facebook page and become part of the conversation and knowledge sharing
• ask questions about the Bush Fire Risk Management plan for your area
• surf our website http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

For me being involved in discussions is a really good way to learn and remember important information. It is also a good way to challenge my own interpretation and understanding of a topic. Even if you are confident that you are up to date with your understanding of our products, I encourage you to engage others in conversations about our bush fire safety messages so that together we can all improve our knowledge.

The power of the conversation should never be underestimated!




Our main message

  

Cheers from

Tanyia

Want to join the NSW RFS Community Engagement team? We have 2 vacant positions http://ow.ly/5ylqa- . A job that can help save lives!

About connecting with communities .. . . . .

When surfing the internet recently on the words 'community engagement', I came across a phrase that said 'effected people should be invited to participate in community engagement processes first'. I started to ponder what this type of statement could actually mean in relation to community engagement in the RFS? How does it translate into our world?

Engaging on level of bush fire risk is core business for the RFS

Is it that we need to focus our engagement on the areas in our community that may be most at risk of a bush fire? Have you looked at the Bush Fire Risk Management Plans (BFRMP) for your area? Has your brigade looked at them? If we were to genuinely seek to make a real difference to the Bush Fire Safety of our communities, then doesn't it make sense to target our community engagement efforts to the areas most at risk of a bush fire?

So if we are working towards making our community engagement activities count then we need to understand what IS community engagement. One definition of community engagement is:

'Community engagement' is a planned process with the specific purpose of working with identified groups of people, whether they are connected by geographic location, special interest, or affiliation or identity to address issues affecting their well-being.

Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment

What appeals to me in this definition are the words planned process (though I am usually not keen on being process driven), working with, identified groups and well being.



Ensuring communities know what to expect when a bush
fire occurs. Photo courtesy Gary Walker

 Is what you are calling community engagement REALLY community engagement?

Is it a planned process that involves working with identified groups?

Are your community engagement activities interactive? Or are they about "telling and directing"?

Are they about the sharing of your goals  for a safer community?

Are they about creating a real, honest connection and two way communication?

What is the difference between public relations, recruitment, community education and community engagement? Is there a difference?


Community engagement takes planning and is not as an afterthought. Engaging is hard work, and won’t get the time and attention it needs if the leaders of organisations and teams, do not stress its importance. Just as importantly the community is smart, and people will quickly recognise when engagement is being given lip service, rather than seen as a priority. When we go through the ‘motion’ of engagement in order to tick a box, or so that we can say ‘it has been done’, then we actually build up a community resistance to future community engagement approaches that may in fact be genuine.

So following are some suggestions for you to consider:

Research
Know the ‘connectors’ in the community that you wish to engage on bush fire safety. Where do people gather, go regularly and what brings people together. Know who are the community leaders, both formally and informally. What are the issues in that community? What has happened when other organisations (councils, developers, utilities, health organisations etc.) have tried to engage the community? What type of community is it? Close knit, disparate, geographically isolated, attached to the history, fast growing – all groups or communities have their own personalities.



Do residents in high risk areas know they live in a
high risk area? Photo courtesy Gary Walker.



Listen.

Engagement is not just promotion- handing out of newsletters and holding a display. If your engagement is all about telling the community what’s important, what you’re doing and what you want them to do then it’s not engaging. We need to actively plan for, and seek, two way communications if we want to increase the level of community action. We need to listen and we need to actively seek to understand their position and attitude.

Join local conversations.
We cannot expect all of the conversation to come to us. People are discussing community news, events in the community, what their neighbour is doing and lots of day to day chatter in physical community locations and with social media tools such as Face Book and community blogs. You need to join those discussions and respect the place of others who are leading the conversations.

Telling and one-way conversations have their place, but real and effective engagement involves more than one voice in the conversation. It involves listening, sharing knowledge, seeking suggestions, encouraging the sharing of stories, asking questions, checking for understanding, sharing learnings and personal experiences. It involves conversations and humility. To engage we need to be thick skinned, tolerant, tactful, resourceful, resilient and approachable. We need to remember how crucial conversations are to learning, changing behaviour and improving the understanding of bush fire risk. Conversations need a friendly voice and often benefit from the ability to have a laugh.



Conversations are critical to community engagement



Community engagement has many different shapes and forms. It can zap all your energy or leave you on a high feeling really positive. In the RFS it is about helping people to understand their level of risk to bush fire so that they can take steps to protect themselves and their families. It is about making real connections that could help to save a life.



We connect. We interact. We exchange knowledge. We listen. We build relationships in our communities to help preserve life and property from bush fire.

Cheers and thanks

Tanyia

WIN TV are here to take some footage of our Community Engagement and Fire Awareness Conference- they will see lots of smiling faces #RFSengagemet

Roadshows Week 4 - The Final Leg



This fighter jet landed at the airport  next to the
Cessnock FCC  – what a sight!

 Last week of the Roadshows!



We left a rainy miserable Sydney and arrived in a bright, sunny and surprisingly crisp Cessnock. The FCC is located next door to the airport and Lew was very excited about the fighter jet that landed during the afternoon – must be a guy thing!

 

The Community Engagement  Manual is a useful tool to

support local activities



 There was a lot of energy in the afternoon session, with Marty talking to the group about  collaborating with other areas and their experience with focusing on certain stakeholders such as real estate agents, mining companies and the defence forces. Brian and Meegan then shared the Community Engagement Resource Folder they’ve developed. This folder is a guide for  community engagement and includes information about forms, programs and resources. Each brigade in the area will be getting a copy of the resource folder.



Leanne’s presentation was by far the most fun, creative and interactive we’ve seen. She has developed an online game show using bush fire related questions. This helps people to review, learn and understand RFS bush fire safety information and key messages in a fun and non threatening manner that really engages. Leanne presented factual information in an entertaining way and everyone had a ball! She shared the technology to create the game - it really is very simple and yes we will pass it on through the forums.



This was a thoroughly enjoyable evening session with much sharing, learning and laughter!

Next stop Hornsby FCC!

Rufus

The Lakes Team Mascot

We arrived at the beautiful Hornsby FCC and set up for the afternoon session. We were joined by some of our other team members Melissa, Terry and Luke as well as Anne Mathieson (who very luckily got to spend the whole week Roadshowing with us!)



We were visited by Smokey

the Gosford Mascot

The afternoon session saw some debate about the growing use of social media as a communication method as well as some interesting viewpoints about utilisation of this Blog - in particular what was written about the first week of the Roadshows. This afternoon session had the most varying views in the room that we came across in the roadshows. It was interesting to see and hear the differences of opinion and levels of understanding.

A huge turnout for the evening session with some good conversation about the survey results that were presented. We appreciated the effort Scott Jones went to in organising the community engagement trailers to be accessible and on display.

Due to the amount of discussion and comment it was a late night home for everyone but the group at Hornsby made the trip thoroughly worthwhile!

The Picton afternoon session was small but very positive. Dennis shared some local knowledge and ideas that had been used in the past to gather information from residents about their properties.


These models take Michael and Gary  up to 10 months to research and

build but are a great talking point!



The evening session grew and grew and grew!  A vocal, enthusiastic group with a very diverse range of presentations. Michael, Gary and Ursula spoke about a presentation they give which involves using a model of the local area to demonstrate fire behaviour and property preparation. Lesley talked about some very interesting games they use to keep children occupied while they talk to parents at shows, fetes and fairs. A presentation from Lesley is guaranteed to have humour, humility and be thoroughly entertaining and this presentation was no exception. Maureen gave the group an update on the Fire Awareness Community Team (FACT) pilot program that is being run in the Southern Highlands. Value was added by her personal insights and belief in the pilot.

Phil's presentation about the

Urban Interface Day

was a hit with the crowd

The highlight for many in the crowd was Phils presentation on the Urban Interface program that is run in the Illawarra. This program targets one street at a time and participating residents have the opportunity to see how fire fighters may fight a fire on or near their property. This program is run as both a training exercise for members as well as an opportunity to engage with the local residents about bush fire safety on their own property.



A really great turn out at Picton

 – lots of energy and enthusiasm!

 We were so impressed with the Urban Interface program that we asked Phil and the Illawarra team to present at the Operational Directorate Staff Forum and the Community Engagement and Fire Awareness Conference to be held in Wollongong at the end of the month. It is an innovative program with many benefits for both the resident and the RFS members that we have not heard happening else where in the State.

The final two roadshows were held at Katoomba. The evening session saw over 50 people in attendance with four presentations.



Mina and Larry (who happened to share his birthday with us)
 presenting on their community program at Katoomba



Larry and Mina presented on their Heads Up For Fire (HUFF) program that they have invested a lot of time and effort into with the local community. HUFF builds on the local community village spirit and has involved the development of HUFF co-ordinators.

We were also lucky enough to have presentations from Brad, Carmel, Sue and David.



To all who attended the roadshows we sincerely thank you. There is some innovative work happening in strong pockets around the state. Lyndle will get back to writing the report after the conference in order to better share the learnings we picked up. Over all the evening sessions were far better attended than the afternoon sessions and the content was much stronger, thought provoking and inspiring.



To those that took the time to share their work an even bigger thank you. You inspired us more than you realise.

Take care and we hope to catch up with many of you at our conference next week.



Cheers from

Lew, Tanyia, Terry, Lyndle (who wrote most of this blog), Mel and Luke

 

Great Work by Kenthurst Brigade

Kenthurst Brigade and Community Engagement
Take the time to have a look at this video footage - it is well worth the time.

Cheers from the Community Engagement Team

Week 3 Roadshows - Bega, Moruya & Nowra

Some outstanding Community Engagement work is happening

on the South Coast!!



Photo by Water Info and shows the impact of the floods March 23, 2011.
The refuse this powerful body of water left behind was amazing to see - so much devastation.

The drive to Bega was fairly uneventful – until we reached the area that had been flooded several weeks previously. The amount of damage left behind from the flood was incredible. The path the water had taken was strewn with knocked over trees and piles of debris and rubbish. It really showed how damaging natural disasters can be. The absolute need for communities to be prepared for any type of natural disaster and have a plan to keep their families safe! 

The Bega Roadshow saw some great discussion on the need to emphasise the importance of High, Very High and Severe fire danger rating days – as these are the days that most commonly occur. Fires on these days can still threaten life and property and need to be taken seriously - we need to encourage discussion about what to do on these days as well. 

Photo by Water Info.
Taken from Bega bridge 22 March 2011 

 

Bega presentation on engagement regarding bush fire risk



Presentations by Paul Cook and Marty Webster were fantastic and the work that is being done by the Bega group is amongst the most impressive we’ve seen during this years roadshow. We were so impressed we have asked them to present at the staff forum in May!

They presented a case study where social infrastructure research was undertaken (by them) before trying to engage with the community. As part of this research they found out who were the community leaders and influencors, community gathering points (of which the local school was not one of) and ways to best approach the community to improve the level of receptiveness. It was an inspiring presentation that demonstrated the use of many engagement techniques that we sometimes forget about in our desire to 'get on with the job.'  

The local brigade turned up to share some great discussion

and some equally great Frittata

The evening session in Moruya was a large and enthusiastic group, with the members from the local brigade joining us after their meeting. We also had the pleasure of the company of a very large but beautiful English Mastiff who waited patiently on the deck!

Moruya was Luke’s first presentation – and he did brilliantly especially since he hasn't officially started in the team yet! Great work Luke and welcome to the Community Engagement team! 

Luke presenting to the evening session at Moruya


We received a great presentation about the Regions new Smokehouse and the plans to get miniature sized furniture for inside the smokehouse. The furniture is to help both children and adults understand the importance of knowing what their escape route is, and how hard it can be to see when the room is filled with smoke.


This was one of the pictures presented at the Moruya roadshow - their new smokehouse for educating children.

The smokehouse was a Regional initiative by Carla McDonald and the team down south. They will be kindly setting up the smokehouse at our conference in Wollongong for you to look at! We really appreciate their effort to let others see this tool.

Jesse presenting on the very professional
and strategic newsletter she has developed

But back to the Moruya roadshow where Jesse then ran the group through her community newsletter, aimed at not only informing the community about bush fire safety but also about improving community involvement with the NSW RFS. The newsletter is very much about showing the community that the members of their local brigade are just like them – mums, dads, grandparents etc. Not only is the newsletter used to help develop a foundation for effective engagement but it is also a platform for recruitment of new members!

Entry to Terrara House


Friday 1st April dawned sunny and surprisingly cold. Tanyia received a couple of text messages from the team back at HQ. It took some time to realise that messages informing her that some team members wouldn’t be at work due to sales at Bunnings and offers to play footy for Australia were April Fools jokes!

On the way to the Fire Control Centre at Nowra we took a short detour through Terrara to take some photos of cattle grids and properties that may have access issues for fire trucks. Terrara is home to Terrara House, home of the famous racehorse Archer, winner of the first two Melbourne cups (did you know that he walked from Nowra to Melbourne to compete!) where we took some photos for our Property Access fact sheet that is currently being developed.

We were greeted in Nowra by an enthusiastic team. The afternoon session ran for almost 3 hours due to the great presentations by Tim and Gary and also some really vigourous discussion about social media and Open Day.

Tim Carroll demonstrating radiant heat to the group

A great turnout for the afternoon session. One of the highlights was definitely the beautiful meal organised and cooked by CSO Scott Keelan – the best effort we saw by a staff member on this years  Roadshow by far!

Gary told us the story of Alice the Burnt Bear. This is based on a true story (this happened to a Granddaughter of a RFS member) and is about how 3 year old Rochelle puts Alice the Teddy Bear in front of the heater to keep her warm but Alice the bear catches on fire.


Gary telling the story of Alice the Burnt Bear

Sandra talked to the group about a full day ‘Fire Fighting for Non Fire Fighting Women’ program she developed for a group of 30 women. Gail demonstrated the proper use of a fire blanket using one of Gary’s fire pots.


The ‘Firepot’ is great for doing demonstrations as well as

drawing in crowds at displays!









Lyndle learnt that when teaching kids to dial triple zero you should say ‘triple zero’ not ‘triple oh’ because on a phone handset ‘triple oh’ actually dials 666. This is especially important with text messaging being so common practice amongst children.

The evening ended with Lyndle having to listen to the footy on the car radio all the way home (much to her distaste) so Luke could listen to his beloved South Sydney! It’s what team members do for each other!

A great week in Region South – fantastic people, innovative community engagement approaches and great relationships all round!


Stay tuned for week 4!

Cheers from Lyndle (who wrote most of this blog entry), Tanyia, Tony and Luke.





Week 2 - On The Road Again . . . . More great people!

Week 2 – On The Road Again…
This week begins in Wauchope on Monday with a small but very motivated group of staff and a good representation of volunteers.

There were some great suggestions for resources from the volunteers including an idea for another version of the new FDR whiteboard that is magnetic. Also to put eyelets on the bottom of the FDR whiteboard which currently only has then on the top. 
Topics of discussion included improving access to fact sheets on the RFS website and the continuing struggle to have community engagement included in Brigade meetings either informally or as an agenda item. 



Peter presenting on how to engage internally -
innovative and thought provoking!



Sharon presenting on the
 schools program



Volunteer Peter Moxon was a presenter on 'how to engage a brigade' followed by Trish Cheetam with local communication examples and Sharron Downes with a school presentation. A very motivated group of engagers, with innovative and creative ideas delivering a lot of really valuable work.



Lismore afternoon session  was thought provoking

On Tuesday we travelled to Lismore and the beginning of the humidity. A group of 12 attended the staff session and discussed ideas such as the public being able to access the Bush Fire Risk Management Plan via the Internet. A CD version of the Bush Fire Survival Plan that families could listen too in the car on long trips was another suggestion. A passionate discussion topic was internal communication - the issues with e-mail and how best to get information to members from the Community Engagement team in HQ.

At 6pm we were greeted by Diane and Brian Fellows and a spread of food that we both are still in awe of! As the Captain of Catering and Welfare in the Lismore area (amongst her other hats) Diane boiled a mere 500 eggs as part of her catering duties that day - all in a days work. The RFS and Lismore are very lucky to have such a wonderful catering team.

Brett presenting their information book

In this volunteer session we were lucky enough to have so many presentations we ran out of time and Tom, (who so politely stepped down from delivering his presentation) we hope to see your presentation at the Regional Forum.

School presentations from both Diane and Brian Fellows (we loved the humour and ability to laugh at yourselves) and Shaun and Nicole Vidler. Sean and Nicole had put a lot of effort and thought into the flow of their presentation and we particularly loved the supporting photos. The husband and wife teams were star performers -passionate about working with school children and both teams were very clever in the approaches they used.

Greg from Byron Bay spoke to the group about his schedule of community engagement activities such as the Australia Day celebrations that are now embraced by the whole Byron community. The work in Byron Bay sets a really good standard for other Brigades to look at. Your efforts on pre-incident planning, including recording GPS and SWS locations for the properties, is something we would really like to see more Brigades get involved with. You and your team should be very proud of the proactive work you are doing for your community.

Lismore evening session with the most presentations
 from anywhere in the state!!

Thank you to those that attended Lismore - a wonderful welcoming group of people with fantastic ideas. The energy and enthusiasm in the room was among the highest we have seen to date.

Wednesday saw us travel on to Armidale- the land of lovely old ornate buildings. A small motivated group of staff attended our afternoon session where it was decided (as a result of a request from local staff) that a pilot be carried out with the Key Message Cards. If you are local to this area, keep a look out for key message cards appearing in a fire truck near you! We would love to hear if you find them of benefit.



Love the 'Thunderbird' from Armidale with the words
 'Community Engagement'.

Whilst the volunteer session was a small group they made up for numbers with enthusiasm and innovative ideas. Four out of the five are on our community engagement facebook and a great idea came out of the facebook discussions. The group thought it would be helpful if everyone making a comment on our facebook page could put their brigade and region after their comments so everyone knows where you are from. This will enhance networking opportunities and you may find your neighbouring suburb is hosting activities that may work well in your neighbourhood. 

Inside the Armidale van - well secured equipment

Col presented on the history of the Armidale Community Engagement Team and their engagement programs. We were then given a guided tour of their grant funded community engagement van. A van that has a  well thought out layout and some innovative communication tools. We look forward to having it displayed at the Conference in Wollongong!

Some of the mouse mats that were distributed to people
who contributed well at the roadshows

On Thursday we made our way on to Gunnedah. It was clear that the staff in this area have a good relationship with their volunteers and are proactive in their engagement activities. We discussed tanker trailers and their roles throughout the community, “the Flannelette Shirt” and a review of the Farm Firewise resource. Peter Roffee made a plea for the return of showbags and even featured with his skit on our facebook page! Robust discussions occurred on the benefit verses difficulties of paid community engagement coordinators (as occurs in another state), as well as welcome signage in towns (such as happens in South Australia and Victoria). Brett Loughlin, on behalf of the staff, thanked the Community Engagement Team for taking the time to travel out to see everyone through the road show project “it’s a great way to keep in touch, discuss issues, share ideas and we would like to thank you for sticking with the road show concept and coming to visit us”.

During the volunteer session we discussed options for the conference to be run on a Saturday/Sunday in the future, a firewise property sign that could be erected following a property inspection, Open Day 2011 preparation and grass fires. Whilst Proctor couldn’t join us, his Bush Fire Survival Plan engagement activities were discussed. Keep a look out for the road show report to see more information on how he is disseminating the Bush Fire Survival Plan throughout his community.

Some of our new posters

Staff at the Coonamble session

Last but not least, Friday saw us travel to Coonamble, the land of dust, long distances, some straight straight long roads and motor bikes! During the staff session rural messages for the key message cards were discussed as well as recruitment issues for both firefighting and community engagement. The road show was attended by the Zone 

Manager, who offered much food for thought throughout the session and supported the works of the team.



Thought the words on
 a staff members bike were very apt!

 The volunteer session saw not an empty seat in the room and the discussions were similar to that of the staff session on lack of volunteers, distance and lack of opportunities to engage an ever disbanding community. 

All in all the week saw us meet many inspirational people with creative ideas and a shared passion for community engagement. As volunteers ourselves, we envy the support you share in your engagement teams, were in awe of some of the creative engagement programs your have developed and look forward to including them in the toolkit to share on a statewide basis.

For those that attended week 2 we thank you so much for sharing your brilliance with us! You inspired us!

Cheers from Tanyia and Emma
PS: This time Emma wrote the clear majority of this blog entry :0)