Out with the old, in with the new!!

Written by Community Safety Advisor - Chris Toon 

With just over a year gone since we started this blog for the Fire Service apprentices, our story has changed dramatically.

Many of the individuals you have read about previously came from different backgrounds, had different experiences and different goals for themselves. The one thing we all had in common was a passion for the job with GMFRS and the willingness to get out and spread the safety messages we were taught to deliver.

All of the apprentices you have read about have now either gained full time employment within the organisation or moved on to other great opportunities.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service led the way for other Fire and Rescue services to follow by providing a chance for 12 young people to join this organisation and to learn the prospective roles they wanted to gain employment in.

Throughout our time here, we have not only done this across all boroughs in Greater Manchester, we have also gained a level 2 NVQ qualification along the way.

GMFRS have now worked with Skills for Justice to produce a nationally recognised qualification for the next lot of apprentices who have just started with us within the last month.

We will now not only have our Apprentice Community Safety Advisors, we will also have Business Safety Advisors assisting our Protection teams to keep the public safer outside of their homes in the public domain as well.

One of our new apprentices will shortly be taking over the blog in order to keep you all updated regularly with the latest stories and experiences as they start their GMFRS journey.



Eccles Prince’s Trust Team Smarten up Westwood Smarties!!

Written by John Cullen - Prince's Trust Team member, age 19

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service has been working in partnership with City West Housing Trust (CWHT) to run a Prince’s Trust Team in Eccles. This is the first time GMFRS and CWHT have worked together to run a Prince’s Trust programme and the first time there has been a team like this in Eccles.

Eccles Team 1 are a group of 12 young people aged between 16 and 24. We have been completing a two week community project at Westwood Smarties in Winton. Westwood Smarties is a local nursery for toddlers who are from the Winton estate and surrounding neighbourhood.

We chose to complete the project at the nursery because they receive no government funding and it doesn’t cost very much to send your child there. I have lived in Winton most of my life and thought it would be good to give something back to my local community.

Angela Sands, the Team leader for the programme, said: "The team has worked tirelessly to renovate and clean up the run down nursery garden. They have been digging, painting and creating a mural for the children.

"They have been wood chipping an area and creating a vegetable patch so the children can learn about growing potatoes and carrots. All of the team members are here to learn new skills, gain confidence and try to gain employment and skills for life."

The murial completed by the team	Stepping stones were added

GMFRS has been running Prince’s Trust programmes in Greater Manchester for over 10 years and has helped hundreds of young people to gain further qualifications and jobs. GMFRS is also working to offer future employment opportunities for Prince’s Trust team members.

We have been fundraising for the project, by bag packing at a local ASDA supermarket, holding a cake sale, name the teddy competition and a raffle. In total we raised more than £600 for the project.

We want to show that good things can happen in our local community of the Salford West area and Eccles, despite the recent sad events currently being shown in the media. The young people who live in this area aren’t all criminals and vandals - we can make a difference, and the local community has been really supportive of our project - we have received donations from City West, Salford City Reds, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, B&Q and Wilkinsons. Lots of local businesses have also helped raise funds and donated prizes for our raffle.

Eccles Station Manager Paul Smitham said: "It's fantastic that the community of Winton has a lovely new nursery garden and that is down to the hard work and teamwork of these inspiring young people.

"It's wonderful to be working in partnership with City West to run the scheme at Eccles Community Fire Station and offer this opportunity to young people in the area for the first time."

Written by John Cullen - Team member, age 19
For further info contact our Team leader Angela Sands on 07854494816 or sandsa@manchesterfire.gov.uk

Fire Safety at Adults Learning Disability Event

Written by Apprentice CSA Chris Toon

GMFRS was given the chance to help at an event last week for one of our more vulnerable groups within our society, which was one of four to be run across Greater Manchester throughout the year for adults with learning disabilities.

Trafford Community Learning Disability Team held the event for adults with learning disabilities and their carers. The event was held at Partington community centre from 10am late into the afternoon in an effort to raise awareness of the issues many people with disabilities face and also to provide them with information and safety advice to help them in their daily lives.

There were various stalls and activities set up in the room including free fruit smoothies, healthy eating advice, getting your blood pressure checked by the NHS nurses, dental care advice, a stall from Mencap, information from Greater Manchester Police around hate crimes and Fire Safety from ourselves.

We brought a lot of equipment with us to suit the various needs of some of the attendees. We brought our projector which played two videos on a loop for the audience throughout the day. The first was an adapted version to our Fire Safety in the Home presentation while the second was a fire safety video made with and starring several individuals with disabilities themselves, so was easier to relate to for the audience.

We also brought photos of our firefighters in action to give a visual representation of what they do and how they work. We had laminated versions of Spot the Hazard which many of our visitors got involved in as well as our interactive house on the wall where people can stick up the cut out smoke alarms and fires and place them where they thought best. This also allowed us to practice escape routes so the individual could learn the best route out of a fire.

We also brought some smoke cubes with us so that people there were able to get an idea of what it smelled like to be in a fire in preparation in case it should ever happen to them so they know what to expect. We had to wrap them up in several carrier bags over and over as they started to make the whole room smell of smoke!

It was a great event overall and we managed to educate a lot of people about fire safety and helped learn how to spot hazards in their own home. There will be future events coming up later in the year around Manchester and hopefully we will be able to keep supporting this great event and sharing our safety messages with the public.

GMFRS get Apprentices on the road!

Written by Apprentice CSA Chris Toon

As an organisation, GMFRS has provided us with help and support in order to become the first apprentices they have ever taken on.

Within our role we have each been given our own boroughs to cover, each with its own issues and problems to look at and deal with. We have risen to this challenge over the past eight months and we are now dealing with our own jobs and projects. The one thing that has stood in our way and made things difficult to work on our own was the inability to be able to drive.

Fortunately, this has been noticed and GMFRS has now taken the initiative to help their apprentices with their driving lessons. We have just started working with Latics driving school in order to get our apprentices the skills needed to be driving our company vehicles on the roads.

Several of our apprentices who were eligible to drive but had not started yet have since been given the option to start lessons provided by the organisation. These lessons will last for whatever the required period for each apprentice to ensure the GMFRS is happy to send us out into the public in its vehicles in order to deliver our messages.

One of our Apprentices, Christian Krebs stated: "My whole experience with Latics has been really good. The driving instructor is really friendly and explained everything very well. My overall experience has been good and I would recommend them to others."

The option taken by the organisation to support these young individuals in this area shows the willingness and forward thinking they are putting into their youth engagement programs and will help us to reach a wider audience with our work.

Community Safety Team Leader for Salford Borough Stephanie Walters said: "The apprentices have been able to provide additional assistance to the Community safety Team in order to support them in delivering their prevention initiatives. This has allowed our team to become more efficient as we are able to cover a bigger work load. We are looking forward to seeing them driving so they are able to continue setting up and delivering their own projects and really show how much they have learned and developed since joining our team."

The experience so far with Latics has been a very successful one due to the helpful nature of the staff and patience shown with our new drivers. Hopefully this programme will continue into the future to help any future apprentices show fully how much they can bring to the organisation.

We are now just looking forward to watching our apprentices get out in the community and really start being able to help make a difference in delivering our fire prevention messages.

First Apprentice Secures A Job With GMFRS

Story by Community Safety Support Officer (Formerly Apprentice Will)

This time one year ago I was given a great opportunity to join a Princes Trust 12 week course at Manchester Central Fire Station.

This was a great experience for me as I learnt a lot about myself and experienced activities I never thought I would ever be able to complete.

I passed the course with flying colours and really felt throughout the 12 weeks that it was a life changing experience. Shortly after completing the course I received an e-mail inviting me to apply for the Community Safety Advisor Apprenticeship and I jumped at the opportunity.

I have since been able to keep in touch with many of the people within GMFRS that helped me to complete my course and have been not only offered help and support, but I have been able to return it by supporting my old Prince's Trust Team leaders with activities on the next course and with the next group of people to be helped by GMFRS.

Since successfully becoming one of the 12 apprentices, I have been based at Manchester Borough where I was given a warm welcome by the rest of the Prevention Team. After a short while I was already making strong partnerships with the community safety advisors, working with them day in day out. I have been able to work, not only within my team, but I was shown the trust and freedom to develop my own ideas and allow me to grow as an individual within the organisation. Four months into the apprenticeship I was given the opportunity to work on my own initiative booking Home Safety Checks and completing them with one of my fellow apprentices, Tom Kelly.

I received an e-mail alerting me to an opportunity to apply for a Community Safety Support Officer role in Bolton. My eyes lit up as I was reading the job description as it described the work I was currently doing and enjoying in Manchester Central. Some of my colleagues had been CSSOs in the past and they explained the role would suit me and offered their support to apply.  I was delighted when I was successful securing the role I have been working at Bolton for a week now and again been given a warm welcome.

I am looking forward to developing my new role in Bolton as I enjoy meeting new people and facing new challenges. I know the rest of the apprentices have what it takes to gain further employment and I wish each one of them the best of luck, I am fully aware that they are very proud that we have started making a big impact in the organisation and now we have the first one of us with a job.

I would advise any young person to apply for apprenticeships as they are a great way to gain qualifications whilst you work and also it gives you the experience and skills set you need to complete a full time role the job you are interested in. I would not have been able to get the experience and obtain the role I have without my apprenticeship from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.

Finally I would like to thank the apprentices and Manchester Central prevention team for supporting me, a special thanks to Angela Baker and Claire Nicholls for taking time to teach me everything I know about fire safety. Not forgetting Ros Hopkins and Georgina Marks for being great managers and supporting me through new and different challenges.