NOVEMBER 2020
Kyle Koshalek
Research Coordinator, National Farm Medicine Center
The Rural Firefighters Delivering Agriculture Safety and Health (RF-DASH) program, funded by UMASH, is a training program designed to equip rural fire and EMS personnel with the knowledge and ability to identify hazards and prevent injuries on our local farms. After the national training in 2019, the program received feedback on how to make RF-DASH generalizable enough to implement in other regions of the U.S. One suggestion was to create a more consistent and concise branding message. This led the RF-DASH team to reach out to an external marketing company and obtain a unique perspective on how to better present RF-DASH to its target audiences.
Many organizations and individuals contributed their time and expertise in building the program. As all of these organizations have played a part in its success, we wanted to represent these efforts through consistent messaging and visually appealing logos and posters. Today, the programs new branding has been resonating with many of the trained fire/EMS departments. Requests have been made for digital files to allow trainers to print additional copies as well as the ability to include personal contact information to share with members in their communities.
As the program continues to focus on sustainability, the RF-DASH team will work on building resources and content to equip trainers with the tools to train new members and connect with local farmers on ways to improve the overall safety of their operations.
National Farm Medicine Center Farm Mapper
Interactive web tool that provides emergency responders onsite information about hazards and physical layouts of agricultural operations aimed to make responding to emergencies on farms safer.
RF-DASH Project Page
Learn more how you can become involved in making your agricultural communities safer
Some Farm. Some show up when you call 911. Some do both. But no matter who you are in rural life, you play a role in making it safer. Rural Firefighters Delivering Agriculture Safety & Health (RF-DASH) is bringing together farmers and first responders for a big job: reducing agricultural incidents. Our experts are dedicated to providing you with hazard analysis, farm first-aid training and incident prevention strategies.
