Over time, emergency services necessarily evolve. With increased awareness of natural hazard risks, there is now a greater emphasis on community risk reduction. We are reminded of this evolution in broadening of activity across all emergency services through the article by Melinda McDonald in the first 2025 issue of FIRE AUSTRALIA magazine. There Melinda summarises her Churchill Fellowship on how fire services internationally are incorporating community risk reduction outcomes into their work.
Traditional firefighting is characterised in this evolution as warrior mentality, and the efforts to prepare communities for hazards yet to come encapsulated as guardian mindset. Both are necessary. The growing community risk reduction field draws on a differing and diversifying skill set, necessitating calling on a wider cross section of the community to participate – including with us at SAVEM.
SAVEM is one of the Tier 2 emergency organisations activated during an emergency incident for the purpose of assisting with best-practice animal welfare outcomes. Unsurprisingly, in that context SAVEM is seen primarily as a Response and Recovery organisation. Yet emergency services have much wider community obligations, exemplified by Emergency Management’s PPRR (Prevention Preparedness Response Recovery) mantra, where the action above is only one part. Remembering, of course, that PPRR is a non-discrete continuum.
In practical terms this means SAVEM has obligations and roles in Prevention and Preparedness actions. Consequently, best practice beneficial animal welfare outcomes impact positively on animal owners and the community more broadly. This is why we encourage a diverse skill set among SAVEM volunteers, to provide positive contributions to a full suite of PPRR activities.
SAVEM continues to develop our supporting resources to suit that spread of actions, such as the current development of the SAVEM Emergency Management Mobile Care Centre as is detailed in other posts. In the same way, animal welfare is an integral part of One Health, which in turn is integral to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, to which Australia is a signatory. This filters all the way down to SAVEM.
SAVEM evolves according to the PPRR continuum, offering volunteers training opportunities beyond core SAVEM in-field Response actions. In this way, optimal outcomes for all species of animals and for community are achieved, as warriors and as guardians.
