IMPLEMENTING YOUR ADVOCACY PROGRAM
Telling Your Story
Saint Paul Fire Department – a Case Study
Each year, the Saint Paul Fire Department in Minnesota conducts more than 1000 presentations, events and programs, reaching nearly 100,000 people with safety information. But they know that numbers alone don't tell the whole story. That's why the department closely tracks not just its reach, but most importantly, its outcome. Our thanks go to Paula Peterson, the SPFD Public Education Officer, who shared Saint Paul findings that underscored the importance of demonstrating the documented link between prevention activities and reduced fires, injuries and deaths.
Saint Paul carries out numerous fire safety efforts, individually and in partnership with other groups. To illustrate the importance of testimonials and documentation, take a look at two SPFD examples, which work in tandem. The first is the "Follow the Footsteps to Fire Safety" program which emphasizes preventing fire play among young children. It costs approximately $30 per classroom for materials the first year; and approximately $3,150 in SPFD staff time per year. The second is the "Fire Play Intervention Program" which is family focused and intervenes on fire setting behavior. Material cost for the intervention program is under $5 per child with staff costs roughly $1000 per year. Families enrolled in this program have the option of participating in a variety of other SPFD programs such as "Project Safe Haven", a home inspection and smoke alarm installation program which is grant-funded.
Peterson says that "Follow the Footsteps to Fire Safety" and "Fire Play Intervention Program" combined have led to an 85% reduction in child fire play over the past 15 years. Additionally, by presenting a combined approach, the number of children seen for fire play problems has dropped from more than 200 per year to an average of 30 per year.
As a stand-alone program, "Project Safe Haven" has reached more than 500 households in just over two years. To date no fires, fire deaths, fire injuries or line of duty injuries or deaths have occurred in any Safe Haven home. "The bottom line is that public education gets results and is a cost-effective way to prevent fire, fire deaths and line of duty deaths among firefighters," Peterson says.
We've included this Saint Paul case study as a model for documenting the role and importance of fire department prevention activities and programs. Demonstrating successful outcomes can be communicated in a variety of ways.
Additional Resources: You can find additional prevention success stories by visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Success Story website. And, if you have a strong success story that can help you advocate for fire prevention, learn how to package it on the site. It's free to use and it includes tips for writing content as well as online software to help you format your story into a colorful document you can share.
Read the success stories posted by grantees of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.