Spotlight on Public Education Covers Timely Issues for Fire Safety Educators and Advocates
Each year, the Spotlight on Public Education (SOPE) conference brings together leading fire and public safety advocates from a diverse range of communities, providing numerous opportunities to learn, network with peers, and share ideas for better navigating roadblocks and challenges. As part of the NFPA Conference & Expo® in Las Vegas, this year’s SOPE conference featured eight dynamic education sessions, including:
· Promoting Public Education Programs: From the Firehouse Kitchen Table to the Community
· Adverse Childhood Experiences and Community Risk Reduction: Mitigation with Evidence-Based Approaches
· Fire Prevention and Education Programs: Engaging the Community
· Data-Driven Prevention Programs for Older Adults
· Demonstrating Results: Evaluating your Fire and Life Safety Education Efforts
· Fire Prevention Week: Repurposing History to Create Informed Communities
· Enhancing Fire Safety Education with Virtual Reality
· Utilizing Community Partnerships to Save Lives
Each of these sessions included time for attendees to ask questions, share information, and learn from one another, bringing up challenges they’ve faced, lessons learned, and ideas for more effectively addressing fire and life safety issues in their communities. Key themes among the sessions were the critical importance of aggregating data to identify the leading risks and the most vulnerable populations within a community, along with the tremendous value of building partnerships with other groups and organizations to best meet the community’s needs.
At Fire Prevention Week: Repurposing History to Create Informed Communities, presenters Brene Duggins and Maria Bostian, two of NFPA’s Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year recipients, focused on repurposing historical Fire Prevention Week™ themes and transforming them into fire and life safety activities for stakeholders of 2023 and beyond. This session helps set the stage for the 2023 Fire Prevention Week theme to be announced on July 10.
The 2024 Spotlight on Public Education conference will be held in Orlando, Florida. Call for 2024 proposals is open you are interested in being a presenter.
NFPA offers a wealth of public education information, data, and resources that address many of the timely issues covered at SOPE. You can find them at nfpa.org/publiceducation.
