Project Leader - Gerald Elsworth, RMIT

Fire agencies recognise that public safety and protection of assets during bushfires depends to a large extent on the communityís capacity to respond effectively to the risk from bushfire events. This project focuses on the development of an evaluation framework and its application to a range of community safety and education programs. Whilst educating the community is clearly a good thing to do, how well are the agencies doing? How do we measure this? Are there ways that agencies can learn from other jurisdictions across Australia?

The project aims to advance the capability of fire agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of community safety and education programs and facilitate application of the evaluation framework to a range of programs and initiatives that are undertaken by agencies.

To date researchers have used a technique known as ëConcept Mappingí, to identify outcomes for community safety programs that stakeholders consider important. The results have identified a number of themes related to community safety outcomes.

Project researchers have been involved in the development of a Draft Report of a post-event survey of Eyre Peninsula householders for the SA Coronial Investigation, Householder Preparedness & Response in the Eyre Peninsula Bushfire, July 2005.

The project outputs will see the development of a cost-effectiveness model of the impact of community safety interventions on preparedness and associated outcomes.