Frequently Asked Questions
Everyone has questions about all kinds of issues related to fire safety and disaster resilience. We’ve organized some of the most common questions into separate categories – all available here. If you cannot find answers to your questions, please contact us directly below. We’ll do our best to get you the answers you need promptly.
New User FAQs
MySafe:Riverside is a field operational division of The Safe Community Project, a 501c3 non-profit, public benefit organization. MySafe:Riverside joins other Safe Community Project divisions, including MySafe:LA in delivering resilience, fire, and life safety training, education, and awareness. We operate throughout Riverside County.
Programs that reduce risk to the community are becoming know as “Community Risk Reduction,” or “CRR” initiatives. Typically developed and executed by fire/rescue agencies, the most common program involves home visits, including delivery of education and home inspection. MySafe:Riverside was one of the earliest adopters of CRR, working closely with the founder of the concept, Jim Crawford (and his Vision 20/20 project), and developing a wide scope of practice related to CRR in the greater Los Angeles geographical footprint. Our CRR efforts begin with analysis, evaluating not only low income or at-risk housing, but dangerous crosswalks – or places where auto/pedestrian safety is a risk, where poor health is an issue, older adults in need may live, and so on. MySafe:Riverside has worked closely to ensure it follows baseline standards as defined by the NFPA, USFA, and Vision 20/20. Our home safety educators utilize high technology software and other means to achieve measurable results. In addition, our educators will support CRR via distribution and installation of free smoke alarms to those in need.
The MySafe:Riverside website has a primary focus on creating awareness related to wildfire, but also to engage the people living in Riverside to take steps to make their property, homes, and families more resilient. In addition to our focus on wildfire, we also provide education on home fires, earthquakes, pets, and other life essential activities.
There are several websites, and there are multiple Internet based social media resources. There is a kid-specific website (https://youth.mysafela.org), and a learning campus for online education (https://learn.mysafela.org). MySafe:Riverside is also transparent about the FREE smoke alarms it provides and installs in at-risk homes (https://www.mysmokealarm.org). MySafe:Riverside maintains a Facebook presence, a Twitter account, a Flickr account, Vimeo and Youtube for videos plus an online education campus. All of these components to our ecosystem are embedded within the MySafe:Riverside Internet ecosystem.
The MySafe:Riverside website is designed as a community environment. You may manage your own personal safety profile here. Your homeowner’s association can use this site as an adjunct to your own web services. Your local school can deliver courses via our online learning center. In fact, teachers will love the online learning center. If you’re interested in improving your civic awareness and emergency preparedness, check out one of the public/free courses. You can take them at your own pace, and there is not grading involved. If you’re a teacher, you can register as a MySafe:Riverside educator and enroll your entire class. The Education Center complies with SCORM and includes all required testing components.
The MySafe:Riverside environment is ever-changing. Our team will continue to add material on a weekly basis, in daily in some instances. As safety information is made available, we’ll post it here. As new online courses are developed, we’ll publish them and issue a notification. Stay in touch and visit the site often.
Support FAQs
You should be using a modern web browser for either computer or mobile device use. MySafe:Riverside works with all modern smartphones (Android and iOS), as well as with tablet devices. Our websites have been tested with a wide array of web browsers, including but not limited to Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. MySafe:Riverside’s websites do NOT support Microsoft Explorer through version 7. Version 8 of MS Explorer is supported. If you have rendering or display issues, please contact us at info@mysaferiverside.org
We are seeking contributing authors. Are you a journalist? Or, are you someone who is committed to the community, perhaps with your own blog? If so, we’d love to hear from you. The MySafe:Riverside environment is about community. Including content relative to your local neighborhood is what will keep the MySafe:Riverside environment unique and evolving. Let us know about emergencies that took place in your neighborhood. Tell us about safety improvements, or things that need to be improved. If you’re a teacher, tell us how your class developed life-safety awareness and skills during the course of the year. Regardless of the orientation, we’re very interested in hearing how you’d like to contribute. Please let us know by emailing us: info@mysaferiverside.org
Here is our Internet Accessibility Statement – This site has been tested in a range of browsers and with screen reader software. MySafe:Riverside uses semantic markup to assist screen reader users among others — site, page and block headings use navigation blocks are lists and so on. These tags are invisible to the site visitor. MySafe:Riverside complies with the World Wide Web Consortium’s level 1, most of level 2 and some level 3. Through these guidelines we aim to comply with local laws regarding access to those with disabilities. We are currently working to improve the accessibility and usability of MySafe:Riverside. At present there are still some tables used for layout, but in general presentation (using style sheets) is separated from content. We welcome feedback, particularly reports of any inaccessible content. Please see our contact page for additional information. At present we don’t specify access keys, but we intend implementing them for a future release of MySafe:Riverside. There is a link before each side block, which allows screen reader users to skip the block. Note, the link is hidden from graphical browsers. Many links have title attributes that describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target (such as the headline of an article). If a link has an access key this will be announced in the link title. Whenever possible, links are written to make sense out of context. There are no javascript: pseudo-links. All images use the alt attribute to provide alternate text where appropriate; images that are purely decorative contain a null alt attribute. Images, such as maps, that present complex information have a longdesc attribute linking them to a text description of the image content. MySafe:Riverside is built using valid XHTML for markup and uses CSS for presentation.
Education FAQs
A lesson delivers content in an interesting and flexible way. It consists of a number of pages. Each page normally ends with a question and a number of possible answers. Depending on the student’s choice of answer they either progress to the next page or are taken back to a previous page. Navigation through the lesson can be straight forward or complex, depending largely on the structure of the material being presented.
Assignments allow the teacher to specify a task that requires students to prepare digital content (any format) and submit it by uploading it to the server. Typical assignments include essays, projects, reports and so on. This module includes grading facilities.
A package is a bundle of web content packaged in a way that follows the SCORM or the AICC standard for learning objects. These packages can include web pages, graphics, Javascript programs, Flash presentations and anything else that works in web browsers. The Package module allows a teacher to easily upload any standard SCORM or AICC package and make it part of your course. SCORM compliance is an important part of the online learning world. It stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model. SCORM is a specification of the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, which comes out of the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense. The MySafe:Riverside Education Center conforms to SCORM 2004. SCORM 2004 introduces a complex idea called sequencing, which is a set of rules that specify the order in which a learner may experience content objects. In simple terms, they constrain a learner to a fixed set of paths through the training material, permit the learner to “bookmark” their progress when taking breaks, and assure the acceptability of test scores achieved by the learner. The standard uses XML, and it is based on the results of work done by AICC, IMS Global, IEEE, and Ariadne.
The Survey module provides a number of verified survey instruments that have been found useful in assessing and stimulating learning in online environments. Teachers can use these to gather data from their students that will help them learn about their class and reflect on their own teaching.
It’s easy. If a teacher determines that a course should include a quiz, he/she can set up an online quiz for students to take. Each quiz can include multiple choice, true-false, and short answer questions. These questions are kept in a categorized database, and can be re-used within courses and even between courses. Quizzes can allow multiple attempts. Each attempt is automatically marked, and the teacher can choose whether to give feedback or to show correct answers. And, a quiz can be graded, so teachers delivering a course to a classroom and grade the results of each student.
This activity allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary. The entries can be searched or browsed in many different formats. The glossary also allows teachers to export entries from one glossary to another (the main one) within the same course. Finally, it is possible to automatically create links to these entries from throughout the course.
General FAQs
No. MySafe:Riverside is an independent 501 c3 non-profit public benefit corporation. However, MySafe:Riverside operates with multiple fire departments in Riverside County, including the CalFire Riverside Unit. We collaborate with CERT entities, with FEMA, the California Fire Safe Council, CalOES, and adhere to the standards set forth by the NFPA and FEMA. Our board of directors includes retired and active fire officers, firefighters, EMTs, and educators.
Field Members (uniformed) are typically certified as “first responders.” That means they hold a certificate in emergency medicine, or in fire suppression. IMPORTANT: MySafe:Riverside members are not firefighters. We have a separate mission – we’re involved in either “before” the disaster takes place, or in the “after” recovery process. However, we train our people and partner with agencies that provide appropriate training so that if our people need to respond, they are equipped to do so.
If you find a typo or some other error in the MySafe:Riverside web environment, please write to us at info@mysaferiverside.org.We’d like to hear from you.
Yes! MySafe:Riverside provides education related to CPR, Bleeding Control, as well as home fire safety, earthquake readiness, and community resilience. Visit the community section of the website to learn more.
MySafe:Riverside is a California Non-Profit, Public Benefit Corporation, EIN: 27-0967511. We earn grants from Federal, State, and local entities, and we compete for support from foundations that support health, safety, children, older adults, and community resilience. We also accept tax deductible (check with your tax professional) gifts. To learn more, please visit us here.
Feel free to reach out
If you have a question and you can't find the answer here, please send us a note, and we'll get back to you as quickly as we can.
