Fire Proofing At-Risk Communities (FPRC)
AFDO is partnering with Fire and Rescue NSW to develop and deliver the Fire Proofing At-Risk Communities (FPRC) project. This is a NSW state-wide, risk reduction, information, and education initiative.
The project is funded under the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (DRRF), jointly funded by the Australian and New South Wales governments.
We aim to:
- Build the capacity of people with disability to engage with disaster risk reduction messages, especially fire safety information.
- Connect people with disability with their local firefighters and other emergency responders.
- Develop and deliver fire safety information resources to local communities and disability training programs for emergency responders.
- Reduce, in the long-term, the disproportionately high number of people with disability sustaining harm in fire events, such as house fires.
The NSW Rural Fire Service is a resource delivery partner, and the University of Sydney is the research and evaluation partner.
How we will deliver the project
We are organising focus groups, attending community events, developing a survey and reaching out to existing peer groups in each of the NSW regions listed below.
- Sydney
- Hunter
- Illawarra
- Central West
- Orana
- Far West
- South-East
- New England
- North-West
- Central Coast
- North Coast
- Riverina
- Murray
We want to hear the diverse experiences of people with disability in these areas and to feedback to Fire and Rescue NSW your needs and recommendations to ensure their messages and resources are accessible, and that you know the actions to take to increase your fire safety. Local people with disability and Fire and Rescue NSW staff will run these groups and activities.
The University of Sydney’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy is looking at current fire safety educational materials and resources to assess their readability and understandability. They will provide recommendations on how to make them more readable for people with disability.
These recommendations along with the information gathered directly from people with disability will then be used by Fire and Rescue NSW to update their messaging and to improve the readability, understandability and actionability of their fire safety resources.
Disability awareness training and resources will be provided to Fire and Rescue NSW staff, drawing on existing training programs, The project will engage local stakeholders, including people with disabilities, disability organisations, service providers, FRNSW zone commanders, and local fire stations.
How you can have your say
- Tell us you or your peer group are interested in participating in a focus group.
We are looking for participants across NSW for a 1.5-hour focus group, either in person or online, with compensation provided for attending. We’re open to integrating sessions into existing local groups or even combining them with a fire station tour. When completing this form make sure you provide a contact email and any access needs e.g. Auslan interpreter required.
Note that we cannot guarantee a focus group in your particular town but will contact you about any nearby or online. - Complete our online survey.
You can have your say about current fire safety messaging and how this information is best communicated to you by completing our short survey. An Auslan version of the survey is also available.
* Both the Expression of Interest form and the survey are available in English, Arabic, Bangla, Khmer, Korean, Nepali, simplified Chinese, Tamil, Urdu and Vietnamese. If you want to change the language in the survey, find the language option (🌐) at the top right of the page. Click on it, pick your language from the list, and the survey will be displayed in your chosen language.
For further information
If you would like further information about the project and how you can be involved, please contact:
- Ainslie Whitburn, Project Coordinator, ainslie.whitburn@afdo.org.au or
- Amber Freeman, Project Officer, amber.freeman@afdo.org.au