Our workshop in Scottsdale (AZ) earlier this year a great success, attracting 45 Advocates who participated in train-the-trainer programs for Courage to Be Safe®, Leadership, Accountability, Culture & Knowledge, Leadership so Everyone Goes Home, and general delivery of Stress First Aid. A faciliated discussion and planning session helped us gather important feedback and lay the groundwork for the coming year.
Based on that discussion and other input we’ve recevied throughout the year, we are going to take a new approach and create a strategic plan for each region. In early November, Rick Best, Michael Anderson, Rick Mason, Victor Stagnaro and the 10 Regionals will develop specific monthly goals for each region, which should help us operate more efficiently.
We may be reaching out through a few surveys to collect some information from everyone. Your valuable insights will be needed to meet each defined goal.
We have assembled a team of advocates to review our Everyone Goes Home® white papers, reference materials on file, and correlate the materials. This will ensure that all of our materials are up to date, still relevant to the current fire service and research, and add any additional resources that would enhance our resource materials. For this project, we have reached out to the wildland community members who we worked with at the May Wildland Safety Meeting to correlate wildland firefighting our references. This project should last until October, and the results will be reported out at our advocate meeting.
Congratulations to South Dakota! This past spring, the Everyone Goes Home® program was invited into South Dakota to host train the trainers for Everyone Goes Home® and Local Assistance State Team (LAST) programs. After four training classes and LAST presentations, South Dakota now has advocates in place, a LAST team formed, and a signed MOU with the South Dakota State Fire Marshal’s office.
