As an inaugural year with limited opportunities to meet in person, 2021 still provided an opportunity for growth for the IL CRR Stakeholder Taskforce. The taskforce was able to create a foundation upon which many future initiatives can be built. The group identified and clarified its membership, named a project manager, created a mission statement, developed a social media presence, hosted a full day CRR Conference, and began work on an in-depth state risk assessment (SRA). Each endeavor took time, dedication, and resolve. It was important to build solid underpinning before other CRR initiatives can take place.
What does this mean looking ahead to 2022? The IL CRR Stakeholder Taskforce looks forward to advancing the initial work to begin further community outreach across the state. While they are still in the early planning stages, discussions are underway to begin work on the following:
- Complete the Illinois State Risk Assessment
- Host a free CRR Awareness Class, followed by a free CRR Community Assessment Class
- Host a 2nd Annual CRR Conference
- Increase awareness and outreach
- Assist communities in developing their own CRR plans
- Add non-fire state agencies to the taskforce
The Illinois Fire Inspectors Association’s Annual Fire and Life Safety Conference will take place on March 23, 24 and 25, 2022 in Peoria. The Illinois CRR Stakeholder Taskforce will take part in a presentation by the Vision 20/20 State Coalition Engagement Framework’s Team Lead for Technical Advisors. This will be an excellent opportunity to network with others and to gain insight into tips and tricks for creating your own local CRR coalitions and initiatives.
Do you Know?
The definition of Community Risk Reduction (CRR) is a process to identify and prioritize local risks, followed by the integrated and strategic investment of resources (emergency response and prevention) to reduce their occurrence and impact (Vision 20/20). A State Risk Assessment (SRA) provides an overview of the state, reporting on all aspects of the state’s demographics, income, geography, weather, target hazards, statewide fire incidents, fire department response and data collection, fire injury and fire fatality data, among other relevant information.
It is through an examination of this data that focused and targeted efforts can support departments and communities in preventing and mitigating their highest risks.
Here is the first of several ‘Do you Know?’ segments about Illinois.
Do you know
What percentage of the registered Illinois fire departments are each of the following: Volunteer, Mostly Volunteer, Mostly Career, and Career?
The State of Illinois had 1,100 registered fire departments according to the 2021 National Fire Department Registry Summary produced by the United States Fire Administration. From a national perspective the state ranks sixth in registered fire departments breaking down to 13.2% career, 6.5% mostly career, 14.5% mostly volunteer and 65.9% volunteer. This closely mirrors data on a national level which equate to 9.1% career, 4.8% mostly career, 15.7% mostly volunteer and 70.4% volunteer. The State of Illinois shows slightly higher levels of career departments which can likely be attributed to the state ranking of sixth in national population which directly correlates to greater numbers of career departments protecting higher populous locations across the state as compared to national statistics.
Visit www.illinoiscrr.com for relevant notices, links to classes, trainings, downloadable articles for use in your community, and other resources.
You can find more information, along with free and downloadable CRR planning guides, at Vision 20/20’s website www.strategicfire.org.
We invite you to contact the IL CRR Stakeholder Taskforce at info@illinoisfirechiefs.org. for resources and CRR updates. We welcome your questions, requests, and suggestions.
The Illinois Fire Safety Alliance is an Illinois Community Risk Reduction Stakeholder Taskfoce Member.