Our Games promo video is on YouTube!
I am delighted that for the first time ever the Games has incorporated a wide-ranging and innovative community engagement programme. Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority are very proud of its record in the field of community engagement and we soon recognised that the Games represented a great opportunity to continue with this work and engage with people that perhaps we hadn’t previously been able to reach.Following a succesful bid to central governement for funding we now have 12 live community projects.
These are already starting to have an impact in areas such as tackling childhood obesity through our “Fire Fit Kids” programme, improving the skills of people and making them more employable through our volunteering programme and improving the knowledge and culltural education of people via our web-based “Spark” initiative.So for us the Games has already started to deliver.
We will continue to work to ensure that the community engagement programme will be a long & lasting legacy and will eventually mesh with the 2012 Olympics community and legacy proposals on a local, regional and even national level.
Dave Robinson
General Manager WFG08
WFG08 and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service are in great honour to be in partnership with Essex County Fire & Rescue Service to host this novel Toughest Firefighter themed event for Young Firefighters across UK to take part!
With generous support from Sefton Council, TYFC Preliminarily round and Junior Group Final will be taken place at the newly open Litherland Sports Park on Sunday 24th August 2008; Senior Group Final will be taken place at the WFG08 Village – Liverpool Echo Arena on Monday 25th August 2008, at the WFG08 Opening Ceremony!
This FREE Entry event is now open for registration until 31 July 2008. Budget accommodation is available. Please visit http://www.wfg08.com/community/toughest.cfm to download registration pack. For further information, please contact Essie Li (WFG Community Engagement Manager) on 0151 296 4500 or email Essie.
I am delighted to be writing my first blog post for the community engagement section of WFG 08. I know you will all be asking what is ‘community engagement’ as this is quite a mouthful! So I will not be using this expression again. Let me tell you a story to illustrate what I mean.
I was on the train last Christmas and I noticed a person wearing a MFRS jacket and uniform. He was talking to someone who was clearly a friend and whom he has not been speaking for some time. His friend asked him what job he was doing for Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, to which he replied, ‘working with………kids!’
Whilst this make me laugh I was also proud to reliase that MFRS was actually doing something positive and real with regard to working with young people who face serious challenges in their lives and often present problems to the rest of the community.
So when I talk about ‘community engagement’ this is what I am talking about. Helping young people to make something better of their lives and at the same time making the community stronger and safer place.
So from now on I am going to get out of the pulpit and give you some real life examples of our commuity engagement works.
