The phrase "the hood" is slang for a place where people live. The expression is a variation of a simple concept. As we divide our communities into different segments and elements we define a neighborhood. Generally speaking, a neighborhood is a relatively homogenous collection of human beings and habitats that create a sense of belonging. In some cases, a neighborhood is created by the development process — usually with the term "oaks" in the title. In other cases, a neighborhood is rooted in ethnicity and economics.
We in the fire service are witnesses to the effect of neighborhoods even if it is in a roundabout way. For example, many communities are divided into neighborhoods that contrast with one another so much that they might be considered opposites. You probably have certain neighborhoods in your response area from which you receive few calls. And there are certain neighborhoods from which you receive a large number of calls. Moreover, you may find that you respond to specific types of events in these neighborhoods.
From the point of view of fire-protection planning, neighborhoods really are a part of the make-up of our risk-management model. As such, you might want to identify those neighborhoods in a specific fashion as part of your risk-evaluation process.
The U.S. Census Bureau has gone a step further. It goes into these neighborhoods and finds very specific data that describes what make neighborhoods function the way they do. That data can be found in a document called "Community Tapestry." While informative, that document is based on 10-year-old census information. However, we are in the year of another census, so new information will be made available in the very-near future about neighborhoods and census tracts that will provide us with clues as to what is going to happen to our profession.
If your department hasn't already done so, now is the time to become familiar with the U.S. Census Bureau. If you go www.census.gov, you can mine information that will be useful in your discussion about both workload and projected consequences on your department.
Armed with information from census tract, you can be more specific about anticipated activities for your organization. We haven't reached a level of scientific validity with which you can project the exact number and location of EMS calls, but the demographic information contained in the census tract will be useful in targeting your activities — especially your public-education efforts.
Do you have a neighborhood in which language barriers are problematic? If so, make plans to translate educational materials into that language.
What about income? Do areas with lower-income families produce calls for specific types of services? The better you can paint a portrait of your community using this information, the more likely you will be able to provide the services it needs.
Originally, neighborhoods viewed fire stations as assets. Now, the fire station often is invisible to the neighborhood. But more dangerous is the idea that the neighborhood is invisible to the fire station. Any effort you make to understand your neighborhoods' demographics should generate goodwill in the community — and that's in the best interest of the fire service.
Of course we don't want to see firefighters exchanging gang signs to be "in" when they're in specific neighborhoods, but we need to be the community experts on what is happening in our hoods. There is an old saying that "forewarned is forearmed." Using information from the U.S. Census Bureau will ensure that your overall fire-prevention and public education strategies are on target.
Ronny J. Coleman has served as fire chief in Fullerton and San Clemente, Calif., and was the fire marshal of the state of California from 1992 to 1999. He is a certified fire chief and a master instructor in the California Fire Service Training and Education System.
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