Public Agency Partnerships
Community Preparedness Programs for Fire Departments & Public Agencies
Partnership-focused community preparedness programming for public agencies, local governments, fire departments, emergency management, and public health organizations.
Extending Community Preparedness Capacity
Public agencies frequently balance community outreach with operational responsibilities, staffing limitations, emergency response, inspections, planning, exercises, and other mission requirements.
IFCRR can provide an additional program-delivery resource for agencies that want to expand community preparedness without creating every curriculum, instructor guide, exercise, evaluation tool, and participant resource internally.
- Community emergency preparedness
- Wildfire, smoke, and evacuation readiness
- Hazardous-materials and shelter-in-place awareness
- Emergency communications
- Household preparedness
- Protective decision-making
- CPR/AED
- First aid
- Severe-bleeding control
- Preparedness demonstrations
- Community exercises
- Pilot programs
Programs can be adapted to reinforce the agency's existing public messaging and local emergency procedures.
Fire Departments and Community Risk Reduction
Fire departments increasingly use community risk reduction approaches to identify local risks and select interventions that can reduce preventable harm.
IFCRR can support this work through community-facing education and training focused on practical preparedness and behavior.
- Wildfire preparedness
- Evacuation readiness
- Smoke exposure reduction
- Household emergency planning
- Medical emergency skills
- Bleeding control
- Preparedness fairs
- Neighborhood outreach
- Community demonstrations
- Hazard-specific public education
IFCRR does not replace a fire department's Community Risk Reduction program. Instead, IFCRR can provide a structured training resource that supplements agency outreach and allows departments to reach additional audiences.
Emergency Management Agencies
- Household preparedness
- Emergency alerts
- Evacuation
- Shelter-in-place
- Emergency communications
- Protective decision-making
- Preparedness for locally relevant hazards
- Community exercises
- Neighborhood readiness
Training can incorporate locally approved emergency-information sources and public protective-action messages. Programs may also provide an avenue for reaching audiences that are unlikely to complete longer emergency-management or volunteer-response courses.
Public Health Agencies
Many emergencies have important public-health consequences.
- Wildfire smoke
- Air-quality emergencies
- Chemical releases
- Exposure reduction
- Extreme conditions
- Emergency communications
- Community preparedness
- Populations requiring additional preparedness support
- Medical and lifesaving skills
IFCRR's preparedness approach connects hazard information with practical protective actions that individuals and households can take.
Local Government
- Community preparedness initiatives
- Public education
- Neighborhood engagement
- Employee preparedness
- Emergency-preparedness campaigns
- Preparedness fairs
- Community-benefit projects
- Hazard-specific outreach
- Exercises
- Grant-supported programs
Programs can be developed around a defined jurisdiction, neighborhood, audience, or hazard.
Complementing CERT
Community Emergency Response Team programs provide substantial preparedness and disaster-response training and can create an organized volunteer capability.
IFCRR serves a different but complementary purpose. IFCRR programs can be shorter, more targeted, and designed for community members who need preparedness knowledge and practical skills but do not necessarily intend to become disaster-response volunteers.
- Cannot commit to a full CERT course
- Need hazard-specific preparedness training
- Primarily want household readiness
- Need evacuation or shelter-in-place education
- Want lifesaving skills
- Attend a community event or preparedness fair
- Belong to a specific neighborhood or priority population
IFCRR can also work alongside existing CERT programs where the local agency determines that the programs complement one another.
Structured Programs Without Reinventing the Curriculum
IFCRR develops programs as repeatable systems rather than one-time presentations.
- Curriculum
- Instructor materials
- Participant materials
- Presentations
- Hands-on training activities
- Scenarios
- Training equipment
- Evaluation tools
- Attendance documentation
- Participant feedback
- Pilot evaluation
- Post-program recommendations
This structure can reduce the burden on a partner agency while still allowing local adaptation.
Local Hazard Integration
Community preparedness training should reflect the community being served.
- Wildfire risk
- Evacuation zones
- Emergency-alert systems
- Earthquake
- Hazardous-materials risks
- Transportation corridors
- Smoke and air quality
- Utility disruptions
- Local emergency-information sources
- Population characteristics
- Access and functional needs
- Existing preparedness resources
The partner agency remains the authoritative source for jurisdiction-specific protective-action procedures and emergency information.
Protective Decision-Making
Providing emergency information does not guarantee that people know how to apply it.
- Interpreting emergency information
- Comparing evacuation and shelter-in-place options
- Identifying decision triggers
- Evaluating incomplete information
- Considering the consequences of delay
- Adapting when conditions change
- Identifying reliable information sources
This can help transform public information into practical readiness.
Community Lifesaving Capability
Agency partners may also incorporate IFCRR's Community Lifesaving And Emergency Skills Program (CLASP).
- CPR/AED
- First aid
- STOP THE BLEED®
- Severe-bleeding control
- Emergency recognition
- Community lifesaving skills
CHRRP and CLASP can be combined when a partner wants to address both preparedness and immediate emergency action. Prepared before the incident. Capable during the incident.
Pilot Programs
IFCRR is currently seeking public agencies interested in serving as initial pilot partners.
A pilot provides an opportunity to define an audience, deliver a structured program, and evaluate the results before considering broader implementation.
- One community class
- Multiple sessions
- A specific neighborhood
- A defined hazard
- A preparedness campaign
- A priority population
- A public event
- A combination of CHRRP and CLASP
- A grant or community-benefit initiative
Pilot scope should be based on what is useful and achievable rather than an arbitrary participant requirement.
Evaluation
Pilot evaluation may examine:
- Number of participants reached
- Knowledge gained
- Skills performance
- Preparedness actions
- Protective decision-making
- Participant confidence
- Participant feedback
- Partner feedback
- Delivery logistics
- Audience reach
- Opportunities for program improvement
Where appropriate, IFCRR can provide a post-pilot summary identifying findings and recommendations for future delivery. This creates useful information for both program improvement and potential future funding.
Pilot Cost and Partnership Models
Initial pilot arrangements may vary.
For strategically valuable opportunities, IFCRR may contribute volunteer instructor and staff time and provide some or all program services at no cost to the public-agency partner.
- Partner support for direct program expenses
- Shared costs
- Grant funding
- Community-benefit funding
- Corporate or foundation sponsorship
- Donated facilities or resources
- Other mutually agreed support
The appropriate structure is established before program delivery.
Why Partner With IFCRR?
- A nonprofit community-preparedness partner
- Structured CHRRP and CLASP program systems
- Practical preparedness content
- Hands-on lifesaving training
- Hazard-specific training options
- Scenario-based decision-making
- Pilot evaluation
- Flexible delivery
- Community-facing instructional capability
- Programs that complement rather than replace existing agency systems
Our objective is straightforward: help agencies expand practical community readiness using programs that can be delivered, evaluated, improved, and scaled.
Discuss an Initial Pilot
IFCRR is actively seeking public agencies interested in exploring initial pilot opportunities.
- The community or audience you want to reach
- The hazard or preparedness problem you want to address
- Existing programs and resources
- Potential locations
- Approximate participant numbers
- Desired outcomes
- Available agency support
- Potential funding or sponsorship
The pilot can then be designed around those conditions.
Extend Preparedness Beyond the Message.
Public agencies already provide critical emergency information.
IFCRR can help turn that information into practical community training, protective decision-making, and lifesaving capability.