Thirty-five brigade members have received ‘Brigade – Community Safety Coordinator’ inductions following a series of workshops across CFA’s District 23 in September and October.
Community Education Coordinator Alex Caughey said today “the focus has been on welcoming them to the role and exploring the opportunities available to them. The first step is often in understanding exactly what community safety is and just who is in the communities we serve.” Alex went on to say that “regularly we hear members say that they don’t do much in relation to community safety, but once you did a little deeper, you find out that brigade is actually quite active in their community they just haven’t put a name around it."
Recent changes to Brigade and Membership Classification formalised the role of a ‘Brigade – Community Safety Coordinator’ on each Brigade Management Team (BMT) from 2016.
Interestingly of the 679 brigades to appoint this position on a state level, 305 (45%) have elected an additional stand-alone member on to the BMT. That compares to 219 (32%) that have chosen to or elected a lieutenant to take on the community safety function and 155 (23%) filling it with the brigade captain.
Sample role descriptions and support toolkits in relation to the role are available on Brigades Online here.
Author: Jamie Devenish