Nurturing community wildfire preparedness from the ground up: Evaluating a community engagement initiative

Growing recognition that risk communications strategies intended to increase household wildfire preparedness using the top-down dissemination of information (i.e., developed and delivered to communities by agencies) have met with only limited success (Eriksen & Prior, 2010; Martin, Bender, & Raish, 2007; Johnston et al, 2005; Lindell & Whitney, 2000; Paton, Biirgelt & Prior, 2008) calls for alternative approaches to encouraging sustained household preparedness. This chapter discusses an alternative, and one founded on the idea that strategies intended to facilitate wildfire preparedness requires that the community recipients of information and the agency and scientific sources of information engage in reciprocal and complementary ways in the risk management process (Kumagai, Bliss, Daniels, & Carroll, 2004; McCaffrey, 2007; McGee & Russell, 2003; Paton & Wright, 2008; Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission, 2010; Winter, Vogt, & McCaffrey, 2004). This chapter also discusses how theoretical perspectives on community—agency engagement can be encapsulated in practical risk management strategies.