TRAINING FROM MEXICO CITY TO BRAUNSTONE BLUES
The Braunstone Blues, a team made up of dedicated personnel from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, Leicestershire Police and East Midlands Ambulance Service, was first established in May 2015 and has so far proved to be very successful collaborative initiative.
The team’s overall purpose is to help manage demand and repeat calls on all the emergency services by getting people in Braunstone to help themselves. This is done by educating residents about alternative support services and all three blue light services hope this will make Braunstone residents more healthy, safe and secure.
Braunstone Blues hope to embed this even further in the local community by using a tried and tested method of self-improvement which has been employed in Mexico to reduce violence and teenage pregnancy – a huge success it has been too! The scientific method gives techniques to cope with stress, make better decisions, build confidence and improve self-worth. It is proven that once you improve a person’s life skills, the barriers in life are more easily overcome.
Dr Gina Garcia Rodriguez, Research and Evaluation Co-ordinator for the Mexican Institute for Family and Population Research and Atenea Garza Levy, who has a Masters in Philosophy and Biology and has been teaching for 18 years, recently linked up with Braunstone Blues, travelling from Mexico City to Leicester late last week, to deliver the training over one week to key workers and volunteers who live in Braunstone. The people that receive this training will go on to become the trainers and, in the future, be the ones to pass on the knowledge to the wider community of Braunstone. This will hopefully allow the project to grow organically, leading to a healthy, safe and more secure community, with support being ready available at all times.
Gina and Atenea have trained thousands of people in Central America but, this is the first time the training has been delivered outside that zone and in English. Even though this is the case, after receiving the first few sessions of training, the team have already become great believers in the methods used. They really do believe it will help improve the local community of Braunstone.
Edd Rodgers, Crew Manager at Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and Braunstone Blues Team Leader, said: “This is such an exciting opportunity to try a method of improving life skills that has been proven to work in Central American countries.”
“The key message so far is to realise that to improve your community or your family you must first learn to improve yourself. This applies to everyone, no matter what your situation in life is.”
“We all believe this training is going to be beneficial to all involved, both the team and the local community, and we hope we start to reap the rewards as soon as possible – we want the best for Braunstone and all of our communities for that matter.”
The training will be available to all residents of Braunstone and there will be no cost attached – it will be absolutely FREE. To find out more about the Braunstone Blues and the training programme, visit www.braunstoneblues.org, visiting the Baunstone Blues Facebook page or call 07800 709 802 or B Insured on 0116 223 2256.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Interviews can be arranged with prior arrangement via Corporate Communication. A photo of the team is also available by request.
About the Service
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service provides emergency response, prevention and protection services from 20 stations across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Its headquarters is based in Birstall, Leicester.
The Service’s prevention, education, enforcement and inspection programmes have resulted in significant reductions in the number of incidents. In the last ten years, fire related incidents have reduced by 46 percent.
During 2015/16, the Service attended 666 road traffic collisions, of which 174 were extrications freeing 208 people trapped inside their vehicles and completed 5086 home fire safety checks, fitting almost 4481 smoke alarms. Staff organised or supported almost 1431 events aimed at promoting fire and road safety and arson prevention, whilst also visiting 332 schools to deliver fire and road safety education to pupils.
Contact:
Corporate Communications
0116 2292178
corporate.communications@lfrs.org
