Introduction
The management of emergency incidents should be a joint initiative by all the agencies that have the capability to assist in such situations. Emergency incidents normally require a lot of attention within the shortest time possible. It is difficult for a single agency to provide this attention and achieve the desired effect.
If only agency was involved in the efforts to reduce the effects of the emergency, then this would lead to further deterioration in community safety. Agencies are advised to work hand in hand in an effort to allay the effects of emergency incidents.
This essay will discuss the role that can be played by each and every single emergency agency to reduce the number of deliberate fires caused by youths in the society. Furthermore, it will also look at the combined efforts of these emergency agencies in order to enlighten the society about fires and how to avoid such incidences.
Tackling The Cause Of The Problem
First and foremost, it should be noted that helping to put off a fire and failing to take any further action is not the most viable decision in such occurrences (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2006). It will be an act of negligence if the emergency team were to help to put out a fire caused by the youths and then leave after fulfilling their duty.
By doing so, they would not have helped to solve the permanent problem in any way. In fact, they would have only created room for more fire breakout incidents in the community (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2009).
This is because arsonists will always be assured of the arrival of the emergency agencies to put out the fire. Therefore, there is a high probability that they will cause such fire breakouts over and over again.
The most amicable decision by the fire emergency agencies and other emergency agencies is to deal with the cause of fire breakouts. By dealing with this cause, they will ensure that a similar incident does not repeat itself.
Dealing with the root cause of fire incidents will not only lead to a halt in the practice of fire breakouts but will also transform the lives of the youths. The efforts put together by the emergency agencies will go a long way to open the eyes of the wicked youths who have been the arsonists and making them to see the insensitivity of their actions.
Positive Effects Of Education
There are various ways through which the education meted by emergency agencies on the notorious youths will be effective. One of the way is by exposing to them the foolishness and futility of their behaviours. By learning about the indecency of their behaviours, there is a high possibility that the youths would want to drop their bad habits and reshape their personalities into responsible and useful members of the society.
The education given to them by the emergencies will therefore impact greatly on their lives and habits. It is certain that most of them will feel sorry for their earlier evil actions and even go as far as asking for forgiveness form the entire society.
Another way through which this education given to the youth by the emergency agencies will help the youths is by making them to see what they have been missing out on (Muir, 2007). It is obvious that while these youths were busy causing fire breakouts and commotion in the society, there were some other youths who were doing constructive things to better their lives.
Helping the notorious youths to understand that they have wasted a lot of precious time in their lives doing useless things will help to bring them back to their senses. This enlightenment given to them by the emergency agencies will divulge the ugliness of the situation and revive a new desire and commitment in their lives.
Instead of indulging themselves into alcoholic habits and causing fire breakouts, the youth will most likely be found somewhere trying to reconstruct their lives by doing one thing or another.
The rebuilding process may take a while but for as long as the youths are doing the right thing, they will be in a position to recover what they would have lost through their own foolish actions and imprudent decisions. This will just be the beginning of a new life for the youths who had once been blinded by the delusive happiness of their acts of stupidity.
Rehabilitation Centres
The emergency agencies will be more helpful to the youths if they set up rehabilitation centres to be attended by the youths. These rehabilitation centres will go a long way in helping to reform the character of the youths. In these centres, the youths will be introduced to programs that will enable them to drop their bad habits such as taking alcohol and smoking.
These are habits that may be difficult to drop even after their acceptance to reform their character. However, through the use of such rehabilitation centres and qualified guiding and counselling professionals, the youths and the society will be assured of their total change in character.
Self-Control
One more thing that the guiding and counselling professionals will help the youths to achieve is self-control (Muir, 2006). Without the mustering of self-control, there will be a high rate of recidivism among the youths. This is because without the right amount of self-control, it is very easy for the youths to slide back into their former habits. In fact, this can happen just after they have agreed and promised to remain morally upright.
This is where the role of the guiding and counselling professionals comes in. These professionals will be responsible for giving the youths certain significant tips that will help them to recuperate in the shortest time possible. The guiding and counselling professionals are therefore the ones who play the most important role in the transformation cycle in the lives of the youths.
Resistance Of Some Youths
However, there are also cases of youths who will not want to change from their bad behaviours into decency. Such youths are the ones who have deeply indulged into their hooliganism and have been obliged to take it as part of their lives. Efforts to bring a transformation to such youths are most likely to go unrewarded. The emergency agencies will be taken to a hard task in this case.
The most appropriate action here would be to seek legal intervention. The use of the police may threaten some of the youths and make them change their time. They will then be allowed to join their colleagues in the rehabilitation centres. Nevertheless, there are those who will want to end up in police custody rather than drop their bad habits.
The emergency agency should acknowledge the fact that as much as they will want to change the character of the youths, they are some who will not want to drop their bad habits. In this case, the agencies will not have much to do other than leave the rest to the police.
However, the use of the police should not be the primary means used by the emergency agencies. They should give the youths as many opportunities as possible to join their colleagues in the rehabilitation centres. Only after all efforts have failed should the agencies then resolve to use the government.
Solidarity Of Agencies
The rate of transformation of character depends on the ability of the emergency agencies and other related bodies to work together to achieve their primary goal of giving a new meaning of life to the youths. The solidarity of the agencies is a determinant factor of whether the youths will change their character for the better or for worse.
Such solidarity should be in a position to overlook the constraints that are bound to assail it and focus on the common objective of the agencies. One such constraint may be the lack of cooperation between the local community and the agencies. However, the agencies should be able and willing to press on with their efforts whether the local community cooperates or not.
The emergency agencies are better placed to succeed in their endeavour because of their unity (DeHaan, 2007). It is often obvious that if a consortium is formed for the common good of all, then there is a high likelihood that the association will achieve its purposes.
This is because the motive of the association is not to make a profit, but to change the character of the youths causing trouble to the society. Had the association been a profit-oriented one, then there may a chance that it will fail. This is because of the perpetual internal conflicts that are customary in such organizations.
Such incidences will not be witnessed in the consortium formed by the emergency agencies because it is formed for the benefit of the society.
According to the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Community Safety Strategy 2009-14, the probability that an organization will achieve its interest is high when the members of the organization combine their knowledge and skills as opposed to cases where there is no unity and people do things on their own.
The above statement is echoed in response to the flooding in 2010 as pointed out by the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008–11. According to the Fire and Rescue Service, the response given by other associations to appeal for help by the service was incredible.
A lot of associations came in and worked together with the Service in a bid to take care of the people who were affected by the floods. Through the help of other organizations, a lot of contributions were made that sufficed the needs of those who had been affected by the floods. This is just an example of the effectiveness of working together as a group.
Other Activities
Apart from providing guiding and counselling services, the emergency agencies can team with other related and willing organizations to engage the youths in activities that will make them busy and reduce their chances of going back to their old bad habits.
The activities will also be effective because the youths will spend a lot of their time under the watch of the organizations. They will therefore not have time to sneak away and take alcohol or smoke. Instead, they will be actively engaged in activities that help them to overcome their addictions.
One such activity is a volunteer program for cleaning a town. The emergency agencies, in partnership with other organizations, can persuade the youths to engage themselves in such noble courses.
Apart from making good use of their time, such programs will also help the youths to redefine their stance on good community virtues. For instance, through serving the community, the youths would know that it is good for one to serve the community. Through a similar process, the youths will come to discover and develop other inner values such as joy and humility.
Training Programs
Apart from taking part in such manual programs, the emergency agencies and other concerned organizations can facilitate professional training for the youths (Rodgers, 2006). Most of the youths who behave in the way that these youths were previously behaving do not have high level of education. Most of them give up on school at an early due to lack of interest in schooling or even unavailability of funds.
However, some of them are compelled to do so by unavoidable circumstances. For instance, a child who gets lost in the streets at a tender age and is never found may to drop out of school and indulge in other illegal activities. Availing training for manageable courses for such youths will help them develop a skill that they can use to get a job and make their own money.
Sports Activities
Furthermore, the emergency agencies in partnership with other organizations can start sports teams comprising of the youths that were previously starting up fires and taking alcohol. The sports teams will not only keep the youths busy but they may also make some of them to discover their talents.
The talents of some of the youths may be lying in sports. If the youths are not given a chance to participate in the sports activities, they may never get an opportunity to discover these talents. The participation in such activities may therefore open opportunities in life for some of the youths who may build on their talents and use them professionally to earn a living.
Stakeholders
There are various stakeholders that can take part in the betterment of the youths’ lives. First and foremost, medical practitioners will be needed to check on the health of the youths. Because consumption of alcohol and smoking is detrimental to human health, there may a high possibility of deterioration in the health of the youth. Medical check-ups will therefore be necessary to ascertain that the youth are in a good health condition.
Should any of the youths be found to be in an unhealthy condition, he or she will be given medical attention by the medical practitioners. This will be another way in which the emergency agencies will show their concern for the welfare of the youths. This will also help enable the youths to know that they are in safe hand and that they count on the emergency agencies and others for anything.
Other important stakeholders in this process, as seen earlier, are the guiding and counselling professionals. These are the people who will see the youths through the entire reformation process. Without them, the youths are most likely o fall back to their old habits.
They therefore do an incredible job to destroy the wrong foundations that these youths are built on and establishing them on a virtuous foundation that will give them a better insight into the real purpose of their lives. The guiding and counselling professionals serve as guardian angels to the youths because they remove them from their bad habits and introduce them to new and better ways.
Lastly, the government and other non-governmental organizations that are interested in the reformation of character of the youths are also major stakeholders in this process.
The efforts of the government and the concerned nongovernmental organizations to change the character of the youths can serve as impetuses to change the character of the youths. The government may lack direct involvement in the process. However, it can show its support for it by funding a part of the project.
Conclusion
It can be seen from the above discussion that the unity of emergency agencies and other agencies is important working together to cause a change in the behaviour of the youths. It can also be seen that the efforts of one of the agency cannot be sufficient compared to the compared efforts of many.
Furthermore, it can be seen that the education given to the youths helps them to redefine their view about life and start building up their own. Lastly, various stakeholders have a role to play in the transformation of the character. These are medical practitioners, guiding and counselling professionals, the government and nongovernmental organizations which support the process.
Reference List
DeHaan, J., 2007. Kirks Fire Investigation. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Department for Communities and Local Government, 2006. Report on Causes of Fire Death. [online] Available at : www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/pdf/153791.pdf .
Department for Communities and Local Government, 2009. Fire And Rescue Service National Framework 2008-11. [online] Available at: www.communities.gov.uk/…/fire/pdf/nationalframework200811.pdfSimilar
Muir, P., 2006. The Handbook for Students on NEBOSH and Other Fire Safety Courses. London: Butterworth Heinemann.
Muir, P., 2007. The New Fire Safety Legislation 2006. London: RICS Books.
Rodgers, C., 2006. Crime Reduction Partnerships. London: Oxford University Press.