Meredith Hawes, NFPA

“Remembering When” (Monday, September 12th, 9am-4pm)

Location: Mnemonic Conference Theater

Remembering WhenTM: A Fire and Fall Prevention Program for Older Adults, was developed by NFPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help older adults live safely at home for as long as possible.　

Remembering When is centered around 16 key safety messages – eight fire prevention and eight fall prevention - developed by experts from national and local safety organizations as well as through focus group testing in high-fire-risk states. The program was designed to be implemented by a coalition comprising the local fire department, service clubs, social and religious organizations, retirement communities, and others. Coalition members can decide how to best approach the local senior population: through group presentations, during home visits, and/or as part of a smoke alarm installation and fall intervention program.　

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Edward Kensler

ISO & Community Risk Reduction (Tuesday, September 13th, 10:30am-11:45am & 3:45pm-5:00pm) 

Location: Salon 1

Attendees will be able to comprehend the Insurance Services Office Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) and be able to use the FSRS as a way to evaluate their department’s efficiency.

Major topics include how to improvements can be made through documentation, how to secure “extra” points by conduction community risk reduction activities, and how departments can use online services as a way to access and update information.

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Cori Johnson

Planning Tools for Community Risk Reduction (Tuesday, September 13th, 1:00pm-2:15pm)
Location: Salon 1

Effective community risk reduction planning starts with understanding the specific risks faced by your public. In this class we will discuss how to make a profile of your community and assess relative risk. Participants will learn where to find demographic information and receive practical tools for turning abstract numbers into real life facts.

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Lynda McNutt-Foster

Your Brain's Safety Alarm (Tuesday, September 13th, 10:30am-11:45pm & 1:00pm-2:15pm)

Location: Salon A

The media, advertisers, and politicians have learned how to sound your brain's safety alarms to create certain types of behaviors.  Learning what triggers those alarms and how to effectively prepare and combat can be helpful.

This interactive workshop will teach you what the triggers are and how to best communicate in a way that creates trust with the people you serve.

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Fran Ostroth

Advancing Prevention Education Through Technology: An Engaging, Data Generating Approach (Tuesday, September 13th, 2:30pm-3:30pm & 3:45pm-5:00pm)

Location: Salon B

The educational lives of today’s children are filled with laptops, smartboards, tablets and Apps. How do our prevention education programs measure up? Are we changing our teaching styles and methods to meet the ever-changing needs of our learners? In this presentation, we will briefly review what it means to include popular learning styles, learn how to use an online interactive presentation and assessment tool, and explore ways to utilize data gathered from its usage for the benefit of our prevention education programs. This presentation isn’t only for those with super savvy technology skills…If you can make a PowerPoint Presentation, you’re over halfway there! (But, even if you don’t know how to use PowerPoint, it will still be a rewarding experience.)

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Timothy Martin

Social Media (Tuesday, September 13th, 9:00am-10:15am & 2:30pm-3:30pm)

Location: Salon A

Social Media is a tool that can be utilized to share valuable information with our communities – what are some of the best ways to use it? How do you manage it? We will try to answer all of your questions on how to start a social media program within your department or how to manage one that you currently have.

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Fred Turck

Ready, Set, Go! (Tuesday, September 13th, 9:00am-10:15am & 2:30pm-3:30pm)

Location: Salon B(9am) & Salon 1(2:30pm)

The RSG! Program help residents be Ready with preparedness understanding, be Set with situational awareness when fire threatens, and to Go, acting early when a fire starts.

The Ready, Set, Go! (RSG) Program, managed by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), seeks to develop and improve the dialogue between fire departments and the residents they serve. The program helps fire departments to teach individuals who live in high risk wildfire areas - and the wildland-urban interface - how to best prepare themselves and their properties against fire threats.

Your department may already have an active public education and outreach effort, or your department may face limited resources and staffing hours while keeping up with multiple programs, training, and the constant pull of daily fire suppression work. The ready-to-use resources of the RSG program allow all departments, regardless of size or outreach ability to make a positive difference in their community.

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The Ready, Set, Go! Program provides useful programmatic information; implementation guides; the RSG Action Guide for residents in both national and customizable versions; the RSG video for presentations in English and Spanish languages and their customizable files; ready-made presentation tools for outreach; local media templates; available resource briefings; and public presentation tools and templates.

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Bobby Parker, Amy Whittaker, Dave Seidel

PIO Roundtable: Working With the Media (Tuesday, September 13th, 9:00am-10:15am & 3:45pm-5:00pm)

Location: Salon C

Three experts in the media relations field will talk about working with the media, what newsrooms need and are looking for as well as how  a Joint Information Center works.  This panel will be able to answer questions to help you communicate with the media and your community.

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Shenika Dillard

Safe Kids Programs/Child Passenger Safety (Tuesday, September 13th, 9:00am-10:15am & 2:30pm-3:30pm)

Location: Salon 1(9am) & Salon C(2:30pm)

Did you know that most communities have a Safe Kids Coordinator and that they are great resources for your community risk reduction needs? We will show you how to access this important resource.

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Marci Stone/Patrick Campbell

Emergency Management & The American Red Cross: A Partnership in Helping Our Community (Tuesday, September 13th, 9:00am-10:15am & 3:45pm-5:00pm)

Location: Salon 2(9am) & Salon A(3:45pm)

In the world we live in we have to be prepared – that’s where Emergency Management steps in.  Our experts will talk to you about how to get your community ready.  The American Red Cross will also talk about their smoke alarm program and how they respond to localities in need.

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Travis Akins

Working With Special Needs Community/GTO Program (Tuesday, September 13th, 10:30am-11:45am & 1:00pm-2:15pm)

Location: Salon B

Officer Akins with the Roanoke Police Department will help participants learn how to work with our special needs communities when it comes to education as well as during emergency response.  He will also highlight the Growth Through Opportunity Program. The Growth Through Opportunity, or GTO, Cadet Program is designed for young adults with unique challenges to gain valuable social experience and job skills by volunteering for the police department.  Each GTO cadet is given his/her own uniform and can volunteer at the department for up to 12 hours per week.  Cadet coordinator, Officer Travis Akins, works with each cadet candidate and their families to hone the volunteer experience specifically for their interests and goals.  The GTO cadet program has caught on throughout the Roanoke Valley and beyond, as now more departments within the City of Roanoke will have cadets volunteering and some nearby agencies, such as the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office, have started programs of their own.

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Connor Sullivan

REAACT Program (Tuesday, September 13th, 10:30am-11:45pm & 1:00pm-2:15pm)

Location: Salon C

The Recovery Effort After Adult & Child Trauma Program is the brain child of Dr. Russell Jones from Virginia Tech.  The primary goal of R.E.A.A.C.T. is to ensure that all children have assistance in recovery from a fire related trauma.  There are currently no systematic programs to assist children after a fire.  The R.E.A.A.C.T. program can determine the degree of distress and fear of all children following fire, and provide the child and his or her family with counseling to help during recovery.

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Dr. Alec Hosterman

Crisis Communications (Tuesday, September 13th, 10:30pm-11:45pm)

Location: Salon 2

This session will introduce you to the field of Crisis Communication.  We will address key issues including threat assessment, crisis plans, and strategies for handling crisis when they occur.

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Vincent Quinterno

Crowd Manager Program (Wednesday, September 14th, 8:00am-noon)

Location: Mnemonic Conference Theater
Per NFPA all assembly occupancies need at least, one trained crowd manager, this 4-hr class will provide you with insight into what a crowd managers program should consist of. Based upon the factors of: Time, Space, Energy, Information and Metering, along with your understanding of crowd psychology and your reason for being, as well as, understanding some proactive measures, that one can learn in helping to keep your community safe. Crowd managers can and will play a major role in the sustainability of the community, as well as, identifying some key safety measures for your safety as well. After all, educating the public and helping them to self-inspect, will and can make our job easier, as well as, the community safer.

Emergency Planning (Wednesday, September 14th, 1:00pm-5:00pm)

Location: Mnemonic Conference Theater
In today's ever changing world, Emergency Planning has become a major part of a communities resiliency. Almost every occupancy chapter within NFPA 101, identifies that an emergency plan be made.  However, most AHJ's have no idea of this, nor how to enforce this section. But, they are trained to enforce every section of NFPA. Can your department be held liable? What's your liability? What's your community liability? This presentation will help one understand section 4.8 in helping to make a stronger, more resilient community, in providing a more effective community based self-enforcing program. After all, educating the public and helping them to self-inspect, will and can make our job easier, as well as, the community safer.