Highly Illustrated Tools Help Teach Basics of Home Fire Safety to Adults with Low Literacy Skills
WASHINGTON - The nonprofit Home Safety Council (HSC) has begun shipping the initial kit of print and DVD educational materials that are the centerpiece of the Fire Safety Literacy Project, the first national fire safety outreach program specifically designed to reach adults with low literacy skills. The free materials communicate basic home fire safety messages through the use of photographs, colorful illustrations and plain English. They are being mailed by the Home Safety Council this week to thousands of fire safety educators and literacy programs nationwide.
Approximately 90 million adults in the U.S. have limited reading ability, a serious barrier to learning fire safety skills and applying key fire protection measures in the home. These adults and their families are among the high-fire-risk audiences that fire departments in every community must strive to reach. Yet most materials being used by local fire departments are text heavy and written exclusively in English.
In order to meet the urgent need to reach adults with low literacy on a local level, the Home Safety Council developed the Fire Safety Literacy Project along with national partners ProLiteracy Worldwide and Oklahoma State University’s Fire Protection Publications. The Project is supported by the Home Safety Council along with 2003 and 2004 Fire Prevention and Safety Grant funding through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Office of Domestic Preparedness.
The free Fire Safety Literacy Project educational materials are being provided to thousands of community safety advocates exclusively through the Home Safety Council Expert Network (http://www.homesafetycouncil.org/expertnetwork), and directly to nearly 6,000 local literacy programs affiliated with ProLiteracy America and Literacy USA.
“This Project was specifically designed to reach the tens of millions of adults in our country with low literacy skills, a high-risk audience currently underserved with home fire safety information,” said Home Safety Council president Meri-K Appy. “For nearly two years, we’ve worked with ProLiteracy Worldwide and OSU’s Fire Protection Publications developing, evaluating and refining the Project materials to ensure they are technically sound and effective teaching materials. We are delighted to be able to provide fire and life safety educators and literacy providers across the country with free access to this unprecedented set of quality tools to help them teach critical fire safety skills in communities nationwide.”
The Fire Safety Literacy Project materials teach the public three basic messages: smoke from a home fire can kill quickly; every home needs working smoke alarms on each level; and planning and practicing home fire drills is essential. The Project materials were tested with adults enrolled in literacy programs in seven pilot sites across the country. The pilot testing of the materials included partnering local literacy programs with fire safety educators in their communities.
“We’ve had an excellent fire safety education program for years, but a large segment of our at-risk population was missing the message,” said Chief Herman Brice, Fire Rescue Administrator for Palm Beach County, Florida Fire- Rescue, a pilot-site participant. “The Fire Safety Literacy Project has helped us reach this important part of our community more effectively -- and within our existing budget.”
The Project teaching aides meet national standards for both fire safety and literacy education. The new materials are packaged in a durable file box and include a brief video introduction of the Project and a printed User’s Guide for fire safety and literacy educators. The teaching tools include:
* A set of large pictogram teaching cards with visual illustrations that help educators reinforce basic home fire safety messages for adult learners * A set of 17" x 22" wall posters and 50 companion take-home sheets that present step-by-step, illustrated instruction and plain English text on the importance of working smoke alarms and planning and practicing a home fire drill * A quantity of short stories in English and in Spanish with photographs and simple text that details home fire escape planning and practice * A DVD Flash presentation which teaches adults eight important home fire safety lessons through an interactive series of photographic slides and plain English instructions. * 50 pencils imprinted with safety messages
In addition to the mailing, the materials are available to the public at no charge on the Project Web site: http://www.firesafetyliteracyproject.org/.
Community educators can receive the complete resource kit by signing up for the Expert Network, the Home Safety Council’s free online resource for fire and life safety educators, at http://www.homesafetycouncil.org/expertnetwork.
Background on the National Partners
ProLiteracy Worldwide is the oldest and largest nonprofit literacy organization in the world. Its U.S. programs division ProLiteracy America provides support and materials to 1200 affiliates in all 50 states and Washington, DC. These affiliates serve more than 225,000 adult learners.
Oklahoma State University’s Fire Protection Publications (FPP) was established to carry out the mission of the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA). FPP, a not-for-profit entity, is the world’s leading publisher of training materials for the fire and emergency services, publishing and distributing the IFSTA-validated training manuals.
The Home Safety Council (HSC) is the only national non-profit organization solely dedicated to preventing home related injuries that result in nearly 20,000 deaths and 21 million medical visits on average each year. Through national programs, partnerships and the support of volunteers, HSC educates people of all ages to be safer in and around their homes. The Home Safety Council is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization located in Washington, DC.