Public Education
As seen in
When “Cooking Up” Ideas,
Collaborative Efforts Can Pay Off Big
Patti S. Davis, MEd
What makes a great recipe for a successful 9-1-1 public education campaign—funding, creativity, energy,
expertise? It’s no surprise that all of these are important ingredients, but collaboration turns out to be the key
ingredient in the recipe to successful 9-1-1 educational outreach across the state.
W
ith new technologies emerging more quickly than
ever in the 9-1-1 industry, public educators everywhere are scrambling to find creative ways to educate the increasing population while working with
tighter budgets. Many times, public education is one
of the first line items to suffer from reductions in
funding. Without public education, how can we expect the citizens we
serve to know what we expect of them? How do we get the message
out to as many citizens as possible for the least amount of money?
the citizens they serve. Additionally, the meetings provide an outlet for
committees to convene: Resource, Mentoring, Public Information and
Telecommunicator Recognition. All four committees operate to serve
the needs of the group and its individual members.
An excellent example of collaboration is the 9-1-1 Public Educators
of Texas group (PET). What started out as a small group of 9-1-1 public
educators has grown to a unified band of more than 75 members. In
1994, the founding members saw the informal group as an outlet to collaboratively address the issues in Texas facing the 9-1-1 industry and an
opportunity to formulate ways to educate the public about these issues.
The PET group has a long list of accomplishments due to the ingredients
listed previously: creativity, energy, expertise. It’s no surprise that the
fundamental component to the group’s ongoing achievement is collaboration. The group provides a strong network among 9-1-1 educators.
For many, membership provides a consistently reliable source of advice
and support for topics not readily available in their area of expertise.
Employed by various 9-1-1 entities from across the state, some of the
group’s members are full-time public educators and others have to share
their time with additional duties, such as training, mapping or GIS database work. PET members all share the same goal: educating the public
and PSAPs about 9-1-1 and the emerging technologies that affect agencies. While the PET group strives to create educational solutions to aide
in resolving current issues that arise in the realm of 9-1-1, the main goal
is to develop and share 9-1-1 educational programs and resources as well
as network with other 9-1-1 educators.
PET Committees
Connoisseurs of collaboration, the 9-1-1 Public Educators of Texas
group meets quarterly to discuss, design and implement 9-1-1 public
education messages that are relevant to current technologies used by
A committee brainstorms ideas during a PET meeting.
Images courtesy of PET.
9-1-1 Public Educators of Texas
The Resource Committee produces an annual Resource Guide distributed among PET members. This resource guide may contain ideas
and items used in a plethora of 9-1-1 venues. This committee also provides input for the development of new 9-1-1 materials and targeting
new audiences for future public education campaigns.
The Mentoring Committee maintains a program to match new Texas
public educators with experienced public educators in the 9-1-1 field and
ensures new members understand how to access membership benefits.
The Public Information Committee keeps members updated on new
issues that may impact their 9-1-1 message, offer strategies for addressing
public information needs dealing with current topics in the 9-1-1 industry, and provides information and assistance to members with questions
regarding media relations, public relations and fund-raising events.
Acutely aware of the value (and sometimes unrecognized) labors
of the 9-1-1 telecommunicator, the Telecommunicator Recognition
Committee identifies ways to recognize the telecommunicators across
the state of Texas, solicits information from members on what they are
doing locally to recognize their telecommunicators both during national telecommunicator appreciation week and throughout the year.
APRIL 2009 | ENPM | 21
Tips for Forming a
Group Like PET in Your
Own State/Region
When “Cooking Up” Ideas, Collaborative Efforts Can Pay Off Big
Public Service
Announcements
One of the best recipes
concocted by the 9-1-1
Public Educators of Texas
began in late 2006 in an
effort to launch a series
of 9-1-1 public service
announcements. By early
2007, a plan of action
had been formed by the
Public educators get creative when educating citiPET creative committee
zens. For example, The Dancing 9-1-1 from City of
in conjunction with the
Plano PSC.
Commission on State
Emergency Communications (CSEC). In addition, representatives from
several other 9-1-1 entities in Texas participated contributing to the
funding of the project. The most intriguing part of the funding formula
was that even though not all 9-1-1 organizations were able to participate
monetarily, the formula ensured that they could benefit from the campaign’s statewide coverage.
The creative committee was set to task with creating four solid messages that would address current issues, be easy to understand, inexpensive
to produce, and would translate easily and clearly to Spanish. Although all
four messages were different in scope, the overriding theme was consistent: “Help Us Help You.” The collaborative effort didn’t end there. The
CSEC and PET creative committee joined with the Texas Association of
Broadcasters (TAB) to create, produce and air the media campaign. The
PET meetings are informal, fun, interactive and highly productive!
“Help Us Help You” campaign reached out to Texans across the state and
encouraged everyone to learn a few tips that would help ensure emergency
responders get to the emergency as quickly as possible. All four messages were available for broadcast on radio and television in English and
in Spanish. The campaign was lauded as a huge success due to the high
quality of the messages and the collaborative efforts of all involved. The
project was such a success that the airtime more than tripled throughout the
state. If not for the shared efforts of all individuals and entities involved,
this project would never have come to fruition.
Educational Items
The PET group collaborates regularly with the CSEC in order to
develop and add educational items to its online catalog for its state-
22 | ENPM | APRIL 2009
• Locate industry peers who would
wide co-op purchases. Everything
be interested in participating
from comic books to notepads to
cell phone charms are co-devel- • Determine a format for meetings
(i.e. conference calls, Web meetoped and placed in the catalog for
ings, face-to-face meetings)
Texas public educators to purchase.
•
Identify common goals or issues
This catalog enables the group to
that need to be addressed
save money by lowerering item
•
Prioritize goals and develop a
costs while streamlining the order
plan of action or timeline to
process. The comic book series is
attain goals
another successful venture between
PET and CSEC. In 2006, the group • Establish a single point-oflaunched its first comic book,
contact person to disseminate
information/communicate with
Museum Mayhem, in the CSEC catgroup
alog. It had all the essential ingredients of an eye-catching comic
book. It addressed the issues of basic 9-1-1 essentials (when to call, what
to say, etc.) as well as how to use a cell phone to call 9-1-1. Printed in both
English and Spanish versions all in one cover, more than 85,000 copies
were distributed throughout Texas during the first printing. In light of the
sensation caused by the first comic book, a second comic book was cooked
up in 2007: Everyday Heroes. In this issue, all four characters are faced
with a variety of 9-1-1 emergencies while on their summer adventures.
The most exciting thing about the comic book venture is that new stories
can be written to address issues as they arise in the 9-1-1 industry. A third
issue has been requested and will soon be in the creative writing stages.
Interactive Sessions
In 2008, the organizers of the National Emergency Number
Association’s (NENA) annual conference graciously allowed PET to
facilitate the first national 9-1-1 Public Educators Forum. Slated as a
part of the conference’s education track, the interactive session brought
together public safety professionals interested in public education. It
was essentially a time for networking with peers, brainstorming ideas,
reporting first-hand experiences, sharing proven methods of outreach,
and developing ways to strengthen current public education programs
with the support of administrators and the community.
In closing, a few points for you to ponder. According to the Encarta
Dictionary, “collaboration” is defined as, “the act of working together
with one or more people in order to achieve something.” A wise friend
once told me, “Individually we all have good ideas. But with collaboration,
we get the great ideas.” Regardless of your position in the 9-1-1 network,
collaboration can make a difference in your budget and your agency.
Collaboration is a key ingredient for your recipe to success! ENPM
Patti S. Davis, MEd, is the 9-1-1 Program Coordinator for the West
Central Texas Council of Governments (Abilene, TX). She has been
with the 9-1-1 Program for the past 12 years, serving an 18-county
area. Patti is currently the President of the 9-1-1 Public Educators
of Texas. She holds a BBS in Interdisciplinary Studies and a MEd in
Reading Specialist Education. She can be reached at (325) 672-8544
or via e-mail at [email protected]. For more information about the
PET group, visit www.911pets.org.
To view the PSA spots, visit the CSEC Web site at www.911.state.
tx.us/browse.php/huhy.
See PET in action! Don’t miss out on your opportunity to participate in the second national 9-1-1 Public Educators Forum on
Monday, June 8 at 1:30 p.m. at this year’s NENA conference
in Fort Worth, TX. We’ll be cooking up some great 9-1-1 recipes
for success and would love to have you (and your ideas) there!