Community Risk Reduction Needs You!

Posted on July 23rd, 2019 by ContentEditor

You may have heard the phrase, ‘It takes a village.” In the original African quote, the phrase continues with, “It takes a village to raise a child.”  But the concept extends further to include the idea that it takes all of us working together to accomplish great things.

This community approach is especially true for things like safety and fire prevention.  Every member of the community can play a significant part in protecting neighborhoods from the threat of fire: first responders, fire departments, business owners, fire safety companies (like NYC Flameproofing), as well as the general public (as we discussed in this article).  

There are some significant opportunities for those willing to take their involvement to the next level.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is launching a campaign that encourages all members of the community to lend a hand with a new Community Risk Reduction (CRR) pilot program. In this campaign, members of the community will take on the task of identifying the most severe risks in their neighborhood and community and come up with a plan to address some of those issues.

This campaign will link up with the mySidewalk platform and incorporate digital tools to work on identifying and reducing the risks in their area.

To push forward this endeavor, the NFPA will give grants to 50 fire departments who sign on to this pilot program and implement the digital tool. Here are the 3 commitments the NFPA is asking for in exchange for the grant:

  1. Share the data they collect with the National Fire Data System (NFDS).
  2. Commit to using the digital tool for one year, in order to give valuable guidance to the CRR program, which was designed to serve at the community level
  3. Share feedback with the CRR team

Half of the grants were allocated in June 2019, and another 25 will be chosen throughout the rest of the year. 

But if you’re not a fire department, how can you be involved in assessing risk for your community? 

According to the NFPA:

“Everyone has a role in CRR! First responders, residents, business owners, visitors, students – everyone has a role in driving a community culture of safety and prevention.

“Stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organizations who might be affected or be affected by the CRA or the CRR plan. For example, firefighters, city planners, and members of the local civic organization are stakeholders.

“Partners are people or groups who agree to share physical, financial, or intellectual resources to achieve common goals. Big box retailers who donate materials to help Firewise communities are partners. Local faith-based groups may serve as partners if they provide space and promotion for educational safety presentations.

“A CRR committee is the group of people responsible for developing the CRR plan.”

Source

It truly takes a village to keep our communities and neighborhoods safe and protected from the dangerous effects of fire. Campaigns like the CRR desperately need everyone working together to be the eyes, ears, and hands of a locality in order to keep it best protected.  If you have a vested interest in your community as a business owner, an employee, or a resident, you can be involved!

NYC Flameproofing is proud to support initiatives like this.  Our flameproofing techniques alone can’t protect an entire city. It takes all of us working together.  If you need our services to do your part and keep your business site safe from fires, please call us today! We would be happy to treat the items on your property with flame repellents to provide that necessary layer of protection.  Call us today for a free, no-obligation quote. We are here to serve you! (800) 291-0904

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