‘Involve Your Kids!’ a free, downloadable bushfire education e-book for primary school-age children, was one of the early outputs of Dr Briony Tower’s research on child-centred disaster resilience education.
This practical evidence-based resource was developed by the Bushfire CRC as a tool for fire and management agencies to engage and support families in preparing for bushfire.
The Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) Ellisa Bourne has experienced the research utilisation value of the e-book from two perspectives. As Community Capability Service Delivery Coordinator in the CFA’s South East Region, she has promoted the e-book to high bushfire-risk schools, encouraging them to distribute it to parents. And as a parent of two, living in a high bushfire-risk area, she has used it to involve her own children in bushfire planning.
Ellisa says schools have responded very positively to the e-book, particularly because it is research based.
“It’s not just me saying, ‘Get the kids involved in bushfire planning’. I can say, ‘Here’s the national research about why this is important and it does work’. It’s a tool that backs up and validates what we at the CFA were already saying about involving children in bushfire preparation and planning,” she says.
Briony’s research is the foundation for ‘Involve your Kids!’ and many other projects.
“It was really clear that parents were unsure as to the extent to which they should involve their children and didn’t know how to do that,” she says.
“Where parents might have been reluctant in case they scared their kids, the fact is that as soon as kids became aware of bushfire risks in their area they’re scared anyway but they hold that fear in and don’t necessarily talk about it with their parents,” she says.
“We felt it was really important to reassure parents that it’s OK to talk about it with their kids from when they are in school.”
As a parent, Ellisa has found that using ‘Involve your Kids!’ has made her children more engaged in the process “which in turn makes them more relaxed if an event occurs. If we are leaving on an extreme fire weather day, it’s not a big deal because we’ve had the conversations. They are not all of a sudden wondering, ‘Why are we going? Where are we going? What happens to the dog?’ They feel a lot more confident in the process.”