Our biggest priority is keeping the people of Cleveland safe from injury or harm as a result of fire and road traffic accidents or other major emergencies.
Learn & Live is one of our highest profile and hardest hitting campaigns and is aimed at achieving that priority.
The campaign now consists of several separate, but related initiatives:
- Learn & Live Road Safety
- Learn & Live Home Safety
- Learn & Live Work Place Safety
- Drugs and Alcohol Awareness
Learn & Live – Road Safety
Was developed by Station Manager Jimmy Ruse in response to the relatively high number of road traffic fatalities on the roads of Cleveland.
Designed for young drivers it was launched at the King’s Academy on 13 May 2005.
In the year before the campaign there were 33 road traffic fatalities in Cleveland, and before that we averaged 30-35 road traffic fatalities. In the first year Jimmy Ruse ran the campaign we cut our road traffic fatalities to 18 and in the year following that they fell to 15.
The rate at which we cut our road traffic fatalities soon attracted the interest of other brigades who have adopted the formula for their own communities.
Learn & Live Road Safety now sees partnership working with Cleveland Police, the North East Ambulance Service and local authority road traffic partnerships. It also features voluntary work from two pioneering members of the public, Jan Woodward and George Galli-Atkinson who both lost daughters in road traffic accidents.
Learn & Live Road Safety originally targeted drivers between the ages of 17 and 25, but is now also shown to young people between the ages of 11-16 years to instil the safe driving message years before they start to drive.
Finally, working with various agencies we have seen fatalities on the roads of Cleveland fall from 30 a year to 13 a year in just five years. To date there has only been one fatality in Cleveland in 2010.
Learn & Live – Home Safety
Following the success in reducing road traffic fatalities and injuries, the Learn and Live formula was used to tackle home fire safety.
The same hard hitting presentation format is used to tackle accidental dwelling fire injuries and fatalities in the home.
Like Learn and Live Road Safety it uses graphic images, emotive vieo content and harrowing audio content from actual fire calls to fire brigade control room to get the safety message across. It was launched on 1st of August 2008 to support the work of operational crews in preventing fire and to drive home the dangers of house fires to members of the public.
It is also supported by Lynne Ford who lost her son in a chip pan fire and who has like George Galli-Atkinson and Jan Woodward, campaigned tirelessly with the Brigade under the Learn and Live banner. So far it has been delivered to nearly 11000 people through 230 presentations.
Learn & Live – Workplace Safety
Workplace Safety was launched on 8 September 2010 and has seen nearly 1000 people go through 52 presentations about safety in their places of work. The fire brigade approach to workplace safety has been welcomed by companies and organisations such as Sabic, Amec, NACRO and Redcar and Cleveland College.
Drugs and Alcohol Awareness
This is a new area of work for the Learn & Team and will be launched at Stockton Riverside College in December 2010.
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