 Fire Ready Victoria, Bushfire Planning Workshops and Community Fire Guard are run by trained CFA presenters. The role your Brigade can play with these programs is entirely up to you. Members of your Brigade might want to get heavily involved in planning and promoting your local session, or help in simple ways like sending an email to all your local contacts. Brigades often like to utilise these sessions to talk to their community about local risks or fire history. Fire Ready Victoria is a basic bushfire safety program, and CFA runs around 900 Fire Ready meetings a year. These meetings are increasingly being held with groups who have specific interests such as pony or gardening clubs or even groups of employees. Meetings run for roughly one hour and give locals the must-have information for the fire season ahead. It covers things like how and where bushfires might start and spread in the area, how to stay informed if a fire starts and last resort shelter options. Bushfire Planning Workshops are all about getting residents together to develop a step-by-step plan in small groups. They normally run for around two to three hours and take people through the process of making a bushfire survival plan. Working alongside others gives people a chance to share ideas and be better prepared for a range of scenarios that may occur during a fire. Community Fire Guard is a comprehensive bushfire safety program. It involves groups of neighbouring residents getting together for several sessions, normally in someone's house. Community Fire Guard takes people through all kinds of hands-on sessions as well as in-depth discussions. A DVD has been produced to help promote the Community Fire Guard program. You can view it online or copies are available by contacting your Community Education Coordinator.