NFPA to support Community Risk Reduction Week

shutterstock_1435893959 (1)

Share this content

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

THE NFPA have announced they are supporting Community Risk Reduction (CRR) Week, a grassroots event designed to heighten awareness of community risk reduction as an important prevention process. sment and Community Risk Reduction Plan Development, plays an invaluable role in that process, providing the requirements needed to conduct a community risk assessment (CRA), and to develop, implement, and evaluate a community risk reduction (CRR) plan.

“CRR is a process to help communities identify local risks, and to develop a plan that helps reduce the risks viewed as high priority. CRR Week serves a powerful opportunity to increase awareness about the important role of CRR initiatives in driving community safety,” said Karen Berard-Reed, community risk reduction strategist at NFPA. 

NFPA actively works to advance CRR on a year-round basis. In addition to the wealth of resources and support it offers public safety officials and advocates who are working to implement CRR in their communities, NFPA is now building a digital community risk assessment (CRA) tool, which will help community leaders gain valuable insights and make data-informed decisions around fire prevention and other risk-reduction activities that are specific to their region, featuring data visualisation tools that make it easy to plan, manage and communicate the results of their efforts.

“Access to relevant data such as community demographics and local risk factors will allow CRR leaders to gain insights and make informed decisions about where to focus efforts and resources,” said Berard-Reed. “While many fire departments have struggled to work with data sets, NFPA’s CRA dashboard does the complex work behind the scenes to align local data sets with NFPA 1300 requirements, making it easier for stakeholders  to create effective community risk reduction plans that incorporate five priorities – education, engineering, enforcement, economic incentives, and emergency response – in the most impactful ways possible.”

Central to the development of this new CRA tool is a pilot program involving participation from 250 fire departments across the U.S. (49 states) that are using the tool to assess and provide feedback on key features that will help maximise its effectiveness.

“Interactive participation in this project allows each fire department to provide important feedback that will be used to improve future versions of the dashboard, positions the community among CRR leaders in the United States, and signals an interest in leveraging technology to drive high-quality community safety initiatives,” said Berard-Reed.

Newsletter
Receive the latest breaking news straight to your inbox