Keeping your group safe#
In community buildings, we often find volunteers doing things that are a stretch for their physical abilities or skills. It’s part of the “can do” culture in service to the community. We sympathise, but it’s important not to let the group do anything risky. It’s simply not worth it or needed for this programme.
Don’t forget that your leadership of the group gives you a certain status - please reinforce our ground rules during the activities, and during the risk assessment exercise, make more if there others appropriate to the building. We don’t know what these buildings are like and how well they are maintained - be on the look-out for electrical safety issues, moving parts with guardrails, and so on.
Ground rules
We’ve already given our minimum ground rules, but here they are again. Make sure you remind the group of them before any activities where members might be tempted to violate them.
no ladders
no worn steps
don’t go alone
You can also help reduce temptation by pointing the group towards safer alternatives. For instance, if the meters aren’t accessible, then it is possible to check some things by looking at energy bills, and the group could arrange to get a smart meter fitted.
For some organisations, one of your major impacts can be introducing them to a safety culture.
Outside of sessions
Our rules apply outside of sessions, not just during them.
Some groups with willing engineers have decided to do more detailed investigation of their buildings outside of their sessions. This is where the largest safety concerns will be. You can remind the group that they don’t need to gather every detail about their building. Future professionals can find out the rest of what they need at the time.
If they decide to go ahead anyway, there are lots of tricks that could help. For instance, if they want to calculate the volume of a space to understand whether is has enough radiators, they may think of using a ladder, but they can estimate the height by counting stones or using a range finder. The state of high level vents can be checked using a helium balloon on a kite string, as long as you keep it away from smoke detectors. Please ask if you need advice or ideas.