THE CHANGING FACE OF THE FIRE SERVICE
Nearly every year emergency response call volume increases. More and more, the vast majority of calls are medical in nature with motor vehicle related incidents a close second.
The Prevention Division strives to reduce emergency responses for Sandy and Boring Fire Districts, and in so doing, maintains a constant focus on the types of calls to which we respond. Education programs and partnerships are developed to help achieve this goal.
As the type of incidents change, so does the focus of the Prevention Division’s Public Education and Information outreach efforts.
CLACKAMAS COUNTY SAFEKIDS CHAPTER
Clackamas County Safekids is a coalition of fire and life safety professionals chaired by FPO Lasher that follows the design of the National Safekids program. It is dedicated to the reduction of preventable injuries suffered by children (0-14yrs old) through prevention efforts via: Engineering, Education, Economics and/or Enforcement.
Because many of our injury prevention partners are the single resource for their specialty in the state, the Clackamas County Safekids Chapter works closely with the Metro Area Injury Prevention Professionals. This ensures that these precious resources are not ‘double booked’, which in turn means more resources available for local events.
METRO AREA INJURY PREVENTION PROFESSIONALS (MIPP)
The Metro-Area Injury Prevention Professionals (MIPP) addresses all ages and serves several roles. The power of combined recognizability enables the partner organizations to capture media attention for public education programs. The MIPP group members support the other member organizations by attendance at Safety Fairs, School Presentations, Car Seat Safety Clinics, and other events. MIPP also allows for Sandy and Boring Fire District to have a presence at events hosted by venues outside of the fire district, yet utilized by our community members such as the Zoo, OMSI and Ocean side areas, with the investment of time and resources being limited to the day of the event.
School districts, teachers and individuals benefit by having access to a ‘one stop shop’ by contacting FPO Lasher. This has increased the fire district presence in school classrooms by combining presentations with other MIPP. Because of limited time and the current requirements for teachers, they requested a coordinated effort between safety organizations and we delivered it.
AREA TRAUMA ADVISORY BOARD (ATAB)
In 2004, the Area Trauma Advisory Board merged into the MIPP group. The first portion of each meeting incorporates a review of recent injury data and is followed up by program development and the coordination of special events within the four county area.
CLACKAMAS COUNTY SAFE COMMUNITIES
In 2005, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office received a Safe Communities Grant. FPO Lasher was asked to serve on the working group. This coalition works in tandem with the others listed above, with the current projects: Development of a countywide, online fire and life safety calendar for listing and tracking events, Identification of current ‘holes’ in the delivery of injury prevention and safety services, compilation of data for statistical review and development of targeted prevention programs.
For a full list of members please feel free to contact FPO Lasher.
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PARTNERSHIPS
As is true for the other branches of service within the Prevention Division, the Public Education office places a tremendous amount of energy into the development and maintenance of partnerships. Powerful allies offer great assistance in breaking through bureaucratic barriers and this has proven to be extremely worthwhile.
Coalitions that incorporate a cross section of our community have reduced duplication while concurrently increasing the level of service we are able to provide. Programs are accomplished by both the dedication of our staff, and by individuals and organizations from our community who support the Prevention Division financially, theoretically and through direct involvement.
TEAM TEACHING
During this program, structural and wildland firefighters are accompanied by Smokey Bear and Sparky the Fire Dog, visit classes, and break children into small groups of four or five to discuss fire and life safety information.
All first and second graders in Sandy and Boring Fire Districts are visited as well as schools in neighboring fire districts. The “Team” is comprised of members from the Clackamas County Fire Prevention Cooperative
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