“A Cultural Mapping of the FireSmart Program: Community and Social Drivers Affecting Both Neighbourhood and Personal Awareness and Engagement in Kamloops, B.C., with Implications for Smaller Communities Generally.”
Project Leads: Will Garrett-Petts and Cheryl Gladu, TRU
Co-Researchers: Lorry-Ann Austin (Social Work and Broadcast Journalism, TRU), Marnie Badham (Fine Arts and Social Practice, RMIT University), Nancy Duxbury (Urban Studies and Cultural Mapping, University of Coimbra), Alana Hoare (Education and Leadership Ethics, TRU), Kate Fagervik (Community Health and Cultural Mapping), Lana Fine (Graduate Research Assistant, TRU), Tracey Kutschker (Independent Curator), Jayse Heer-Matonovich (Undergraduate Research Assistant), Sukh Heer Matonovich (Graduate Studies and Student Research, TRU), Jessica Mensinger (MHSU Interior Health), Luke Redgrove (Digital Media, TRU), Jason Schapansky (Trades, TRU), and Robin Westland (Geography, TRU). All members of TRU’s Community & Cultural Mapping Research Group: https://culturalmapping.trubox.ca/people/
Being “fire smart” begins with becoming “fire aware.”
Starting this spring, and supported by a grant from the Wawanesa Insurance Wildfire Community Resilience Fund, TRU’s Community and Cultural Mapping Research Group will launch a unique fire awareness program co-designed and co-delivered by community and academic partners, including the Kamloops Museum and Archives, the Kamloops Art Gallery, United Way, and the City of Kamloops.
The TRU-based research group has just been awarded a grant from the Wawanesa Insurance Wildfire Community Resilience Fund to conduct a cultural mapping of fire mitigation awareness in Kamloops neighborhoods. They will be using deep community consultation and visualization methods to identify what motivates community engagement with FireSmart program principles.
Project co-lead Dr. Will Garrett-Petts notes that “the BC FireSmart’s 2022 survey of wildfires and programs showed that a stunning 76% were either unaware or not very familiar with FireSmart BC. A follow-up survey in 2023 showed a 5% increase in awareness, which is promising but still leaves 71% either unaware or not very familiar with the program. Understanding and addressing this awareness gap is crucial for increasing community uptake and participation in wildfire mitigation and prevention—and is, we argue, most acute for smaller communities in BC’s interior.”
Awareness is crucial to program success. Existing survey research on Canada’s FireSmart program has identified a significant correlation between neighborhood awareness and individual preparedness. Approximately 60% of those who become very familiar with FireSmart go on to seek information on how to protect their homes, while only 3% of those unaware of FireSmart programming seek out such information.
While surveys can give us part of the picture, they do not fully explain the range of social and economic factors influencing the relationship between awareness and action. “We are confident that cultural mapping methods can contribute an even more comprehensive understanding of the current awareness gap, providing a more nuanced, deep assessment of the public perception of fire risk, including public familiarity with FireSmart Canada, in particular at the neighborhood level,” says Dr. Cheryl Gladu, who is co-leading the research team.
The mapping promises to make visible patterns of awareness and an array of socio-economic factors that influence awareness and adoption of mitigation programs like FireSmart. The team will be exploring perceived risk of damage, prior experience with wildfires, proximity to urban-wildland intermix areas, gender, age, political orientations, education level, and the role of incentives.
The project brings together a diverse team of city directors, coordinators, practitioners, arts and culture organizations, faculty, community researchers, and students to address the crucial issue of wildfire mitigation and the awareness gap regarding FireSmart Canada programming.
Many of those involved contributed their cultural mapping expertise to the development of Kamloops’ Cultural Strategic Plan via the You Are Here Project, which, starting in 2022, successfully engaged thousands of Kamloops residents. “We are anticipating a similar level of cultural mapping participation and engagement,” says Garrett-Petts. “Thanks to the support from the museum and the art gallery, we will be combining community consultation with map exhibition as a way to increase public awareness and make visible those FireSmart BC mitigation measures that the community finds compelling.”
Note: Wawanesa Insurance is leading the charge as the first insurance company to invest in wildfire-related research at Thompson Rivers University (TRU), strategically located in one of the world’s most active hotspots for wildfire response.
Community Exhibition & Mapping Lab, Blog Posts, FireSmart Links, and News Reports
Cultural Mapping Workshop on FireSmart Awareness and Wildfire Resiliency [INSERT LINK]
