Arson prevention & Youth Offending.

[Dave]

Hello.

I am a Senior Care Officer employed by Social Services working in a secure unit housing young male offenders aged between 11-18 (average age 14).

One of my roles is to deliver anti-offending group work.  

Arson / reckless / malicious fire setting is a subject that has been identified as needing improvement.
There is a lack of credible material to deliver at the unit. Even the specialist sessions delivered by fire service personnel is considered to be in need of improvement and tailoring to our clients specific learning needs.

I am in the process of collecting information on the subject (resources, images etc) with a view to writing a session / sessions around the subject of Arson / Fire Safety.

The aim of the group work will be to educate young people who are very challenged in their ability to engage in any form of education (due to long term school exclusion, childhood trauma, mental health issues, lack of social skills etc) about the dangers related to fire setting / arson. Regardless of ability young people in my care are often extremely resistant to accepting responsibility for their actions aswell.

As you will appreciate this could be an extremely difficult task but the importance of  the subject (many of you will know from first hand experience) far out-weighs any challenge in the delivery. I work with an exceptional team, we are all very experienced in engaging and educating our clients.


I am asking anyone reading this for their comments, leads, advice, suggestions etc. Maybe you know of an effective model/package that exists already?

Thank you for reading.

D. Halloran.

[Chris Houston]

Arson Combated Together, from Zurich Municipal is a good system.

[kurnal]

Is this part of a general package or is it specifically targetted towards those who have convictions or history of fire setting, arson etc?
You are no doubt aware of the excellent initiatives available from some brigades, targetted to youth offenders based around cognitive behaviour therapy - but if not let me know and I give you a contact for more information.

The video footage within "Your Office Fire" produced by BRE available from the BRE Bookshop could be an excellent fire development learning resource, though the commentary may not be too helpful but could easily be over dubbed.

Are you looking to educate about risks of fire or focussing on  human/ financial/ Societal consequences of arson attacks?

[Dave]

Thanks for the replys and ideas I'll look into them soon.

The package will be aimed at educating all young offenders, regardless of previous convictions or current sentence. Therefore it's content will be fairly generic. Those convicted of serious arson may not even attend the sessions, instead their behavior may be looked at by specialists such as psychologists.

One lad recently attended the fire awareness course at the unit. He has a history of fire setting, once he set fire to a hedge - although due to a change in wind direction and the quick response of the F&RS (or something equally as lucky) he escaped with little more than a referral Order (minor community sentence) and the house that nearly went up in flames escaped serious damage / loss of life. Now he finds himself in custody for other offenses. I have a good relationship with him and chat about what he's got up to in the past. He is adamant he was 'just messing around' and I know he will continue to set fires (esp burn out stolen cars) after his release as he believes this is a good way of avoiding being caught. He is genuinely convinced that there are no real risks.

He walked out of a specialist fire awareness session claiming it was boring, he "just watched a crap video" and "talked about smoke or something". No real seed sewn there, and this is a person who could potentially be putting himself, and others in grave danger in the future.

In many ways this type of offender is my target audience and the reason I feel the need to tailor something to the needs of young offenders in custody that meets their learning needs. I'm not saying any suggestions should be this specific, I can collate and alter info to suit the client.

I really need good, credible resources DVDs, games, visual aids can a good way of engaging kids, or perhaps there are firefighters / victims of fire who can share an thought provoking story.

As before, all info & ideas most welcome...

[CivvyFSO]

I remember seeing some footage that was a house fire, persons reported, child fatalities etc. Seeing the firefighters carrying the bodies out of the house, handingthem over to the paramdeics, then later sat on the kerb holding their heads in their hands, was a very moving experience.

The footage, as sad as it is, can be twisted to fit many scenarios. i.e. It was a kid playing with matches, or the appliance was later than it might have been because the local FRS was attending to a torched car, and so on. Don't be scared of using existing material and telling little white lies to try get the message across. Make up a whole story behind it if you need to.

[DaveM]

Hi Dave, there might be some info you could use on this web site http://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/yoursafety/schemesgroups/arson.htm

hope it is of some help with your project

Keep living the Dream

Dave M