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FIRE 1554: Community Risk Reduction, 1 credit 16 hours

1. Module 1  The Chief Officer's Role in Neighborhood Risk Reduction
2. Module 2  Developing Community Equity
3. Module 3  Assessing Community Risk
4. Module 4  Strategy Implementation

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Course Goal

Course Goal
The goal of this course is to prepare the newly promoted chief officers to manage risk reduction responsibilities at their organizational level in concert with the overall risk reduction mission of the department.

Course Objectives

Upon completing this course, the chief officers will be able to develop and manage a response-area or neighborhood-based risk reduction program based on a systematic analysis of the target audience and the profile of the community.

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MODULE 1: THE CHIEF OFFICER’S ROLE IN NEIGHBORHOOD RISK REDUCTION

Objective

Upon completing this module, students will be able to differentiate between the role of the chief officer in both traditional and nontraditional community risk reduction.

References

Publications

Methodology

This module uses guided discussions, and individual, small, and large group activities.

NFPA 1021 Standards

NFPA 1021: 3-3, 3-5, 4-3, 4-5

Introduction

This course introduces you, the chief officer, to comprehensive risk reduction within your community and explores your role in the process. While it is a new approach to risk reduction, it is something you can accomplish at home and in your community, right now. This course will differentiate between your role of chief officer in traditional and nontraditional community risk reduction. Fire prevention and investigations, code enforcement, and other related fire safety functions continue to be vitally important to the fire service. These tools have helped reduce and manage risks for years. However, the 21st century poses new challenges to the fire service, and specifically for you, the chief officer. This course presents a new approach to community risk reduction to be used in the face of these new challenges.

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MODULE 2: DEVELOPING COMMUNITY EQUITY

Objective

After completing this module, you will be able to formulate a strategy to develop community equity through partnerships with individuals, groups, and organizations at the neighborhood level to achieve risk reduction, given a set of risk reduction objectives and information on the community.

Outside Assignments

There is a suggested follow-up exercise at the end of the module.

References Publications

• Blanchard K.H. and S. Johnson. The One-Minute Manager. New York: Morrow, 1982.
• Graham, Cole Blease, Jr., and Steven W. Hays. Managing the Public Organization, 2nd ed.Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1993.
•  Herman, Roger E. “Boosting Employee Morale. U.S. Small Business Success Series, 16 (1997):Doc. #8102.
•  Hersey, Paul, Ken Blanchard, and Dewey Johnson.Management of Organizational Behavior, 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 1996. Herzberg, Frederick. “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” Harvard Business Review 46 (1968): 53-62.
• Katzell, Raymond and Donna Thompson. “Work Motivation: Theory and Practice.” American Psychologist 45 (1990): 144-153.
• Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row, 1954.
• McGregor, Douglas. The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw Hill, 1960.
• Renn, Ortwin. “Risk Communication: Towards a rational discourse with the public,” Journal of Hazardous Materials 29 (1992): 465-519.
• Sashkin, Marshall and Kenneth Kiser. Putting Total Quality Management to Work, 1st ed. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1993.
• Scholtes, Peter R. The Leader’s Handbook. New York: McGraw Hill, 1998.
• Skinner, B. F. Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan, 1953.
• Vroom, Victor. Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley, 1964.

Methodology

The module uses individual and small-group activities in addition to instructor-led discussion.

NFPA 1021 Standards

NFPA 1021: 3-3, 3-5, 4-3, 4-5

Introduction

If chief officers wish to successfully achieve their role in community risk reduction, they must build and maintain partnerships with individuals, groups and organizations at the neighborhood level. There are strategies to engage the community and build the rapport and trust required to differentiate its actual and perceived needs. Chief officers must understand that, in many cases, the perceived needs are not the true needs of the people in the community. For an effective risk reduction program, it is essential to differentiate between the perceived risks and the true risks as the community identifies them. In a later module, we will talk more about differentiating these risks. However, for now, our focus is on developing community equity. We will examine ways to devise a strategy for developing and maintaining rapport and trust through partnerships in order to achieve community risk reduction at the neighborhood level.

Chief officers need the knowledge and tools to develop such a strategy in their jurisdictions, whether such jurisdictions are composed of one or two neighborhoods or are larger areas that encompass many neighborhoods. In exploring how to create the public trust strategy, we will define community equity and relate it to community risk reduction and will then examine some of the challenges to creating community equity and the benefits of establishing community equity to both the individual fire company and the organization as a whole.

Next, we will look at ways to identify community partnerships based on community demographics, resource availability, true community needs, and some customer service principles. This identification will lead to an examination of very specific methods for creating and maintaining community equity with individuals, groups, and organizations by means of nontraditional programs, services, and partnerships. Finally, we will identify some of the elements necessary to create an effective community risk reduction program at the neighborhood level. We will begin by examining what we mean by community equity.

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MODULE 3: ASSESSING COMMUNITY RISK

Objective

After completing this module, the student will be able to develop a neighborhood risk profile using risk analysis techniques based on current community requests for services; local, state, and national data; and future trends.

Outside Assignments

There is one suggested follow-up exercise to invite the students to apply the model to their own situation.

References

Publications

• Andreasen, Alan. Marketing Social Change:
Changing Behavior to Promote Health, Social
Development, and the Environment. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.

• Kotler, Philip, and Eduardo L. Social Marketing:
Strategies for Changing Public Behavior,
Chapters 1-10. New York: Free Press, 1989.

• National Academy of Sciences, Injury in America.
Washington: National Academy, 1983.

• Unites States Fire Administration. A Short Guide
to Evaluating Local Public Fire Education
Programs. Emmitsburg: Federal Emergency
Management Agency, 1991.

- - - America Burning Revisited. Emmitsburg:
Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1987.

- - - EMS Management of Community Health
Risks. Emmitsburg: Federal Emergency
Management Agency, 2002.

- - - Leading Community Risk Reduction, “Unit
7, Getting Community Buy-in.” Emmitsburg:
Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2002.

- - - Presenting Effective Public Education
Programs, “Unit 5.” Emmitsburg: Federal
Emergency Management Agency, 1994.

Methodology

This module uses small group activities and guided discussions. A suggested follow-up activity has been included.

NFPA 1021 Standards Cross-References

NFPA 1021: 3-3, 3-5, 4-1, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5

Introduction

The last module discussed the importance of establishing community equity. One of the greatest benefits of this equity is the trust that it establishes between the citizens served and the members of the fire department. This module, “Assessing Community Risk,” now builds on the trust and rapport the fire department has established to gain a better understanding of the problems and needs of the customers in the neighborhood served by the department.

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MODULE 4: STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

Objective

At the end of this module, the student will be able to prepare a nontraditional risk reduction strategy for implementation at the neighborhood level given a neighborhood risk profile.

Outside Assignments

There is one suggested follow-up exercise inviting the students to apply the risk reduction model to their own situation in their neighborhood.

References

None

Methodology

The module uses individual and small-group activities and guided discussion.

NFPA 1021 Standards

NFPA 1021: 3-3, 3-5, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5

Introduction

In the last module, we saw how the chief officers and other members of the community identified major risk reduction problems, prioritized them, and stated a goal for the risk reduction initiative at the neighborhood level. The next step is to develop solutions for these problems. This module provides you with information on how to create a risk reduction strategy that is achievable and has a direct impact on the risks.

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