Student Recruitment: Demonstrating Your Fire Prevention Program’s Worth

The United States Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy is conducting an additional class offering at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, MD, for its newly developed 6-day course, Demonstrating Your Fire Prevention Program’s Worth (R378).

The class will occur January 24-29, 2010, with students to arrive Saturday, January 23 and depart Saturday, January 30, 2010.

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to provide students with the tools and skills to be able to evaluate their organization’s fire education/prevention programs and fire inspection services. The course provides a systematic way to improve and account for evaluation actions by involving procedures that are useful, feasible, ethical, and accurate.

The course framework guides fire prevention professionals in their use of prevention program evaluation. It is a practical, nonprescriptive tool, designed to summarize and organize essential elements of prevention program evaluation. The emphasis is on the practical, ongoing evaluation strategies that involve all program stakeholders, not just evaluation experts.

The main themes of the course include:

Misconceptions regarding the purposes and methods of program evaluation
The essential elements of prevention program evaluation
The steps for conducting effective prevention program evaluation
Review standards for effective program evaluation

Course units include:

Evaluation and Community Risk Reduction – why evaluation is essential to community risk reduction, common myths about evaluation and overcoming barriers to prevention evaluation.
Evaluation 101 – the stages of program evaluation and applications to current programs
Engaging Stakeholders and Describing the Program – persons involved in or affected by the programs, primary users of evaluation, description of the program need, expected effects, activities, resources and context.
Identifying Indicators and Sources of Evidence – selection of measures, methods and logistics for gathering credible evidence, use of sampling in evaluation.
Gathering Credible Evidence – methods and logistics for gathering credible evidence. Indicators and sources. Sampling types and common tools and interviewing techniques.
Writing Evaluation Objectives – SMART objectives, benchmarks and timelines for evaluation.
Analysis - using measures of central tendency and dispersion to interpret data, qualitative data, formatting and analyzing data using EXCEL.
Using the Information: Actions Based on Results – actions and opportunities of results, presentation of findings.

This new 6-day course presents tools and skills in a logical sequence for conducting effective prevention program evaluations. Examples of four types of evaluation are presented throughout the course.

Formative evaluation
Process evaluation
Impact evaluation
Outcome evaluation

Student Selection Criteria

Any person responsible for programs involved with fire/injury prevention. Students should identify their specific prevention role on the application, and indicate that they have responsibility for prevention programs. Target audiences typically includefire marshals, fire and building inspectors, public fire/life safety educators, juvenile firesetter intervention specialists, code inspectors and officials, and other community or allied professionals in the fire prevention field.

A laptop computer is required for this class. Please bring to class a laptop computer with Microsoft Office that has a recent version of EXCEL program capabilities. You will be responsible for the computer and its programs while at NFA. The NFA will not purchase or reimburse for the purchase of a computer or its programs.

There is a pre-course assignment and you will be notified by Email or be referred to the web page for specific details of this assignment.

Application Process

Students must complete the 2-page General Admission Application (FEMA Form 75-5).
Completed applications for this January offering must be faxed to the Admissions Office at (301) 447-1441 or (301) 447-1658 OR mailed to:
NETC Admissions Office
16825 S. Seton Avenue
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
You may still apply to other sections of R378 through the regular semester process.
Applicants should not make plans to attend the class until notified by the NETC Admissions Office.
This is not a pilot course offering and your attendance at this class reflects the normal NFA procedures for stipend reimbursements.