Public Fire Education Planning

This planning guide will introduce you to a simple, easy-to-use planning process to develop a fire safety program for your community. Since the planning process is based on the experiences of other rural communities, we know all the steps work. Examples throughout the guide will help you apply each step to your community. These examples, along with the other information, make using the steps straightforward. All of the information in this planning guide is based on the U S Fire Administration's (USFA's) booklet Public Fire Education Planning: A Five-Step Process.

From Book's Introduction: Today fire departments use many terms for educational fire and injury prevention programs. Programs differ in size and approach, but the goals are the same: Change the behavior of the public so that there are fewer dangerous situations, fires, and injuries. This guide uses a five-step planning process for developing and implementing successful fire and life safety public education programs. From identifying the fire and injury risks in the community, developing and implementing a program, and evaluating the results, planning is the process that ensures that the program strategies and initiatives really address the problems. This updated guide recognizes that fire prevention is now an important part of the larger goal of preventing injuries and unsafe situations. Fire departments often provide emergency medical services. Preventing injury, illness, and other unsafe situations is often part of the mission of saving lives.

Public Fire Education Planning: A Five-Step Process describes a systematic approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating community safety education programs. This manual will help those of you who are new to community safety education understand some of the basic concepts about how to get started with an organization's community safety education programs. It also will assist you with some hints and techniques on a variety of topics, such as methods for locating partners to assist with community education or techniques for locating resources for your safety programs.