Statewide Collaboration and Engagement Framework (SCEF)

SCEF Overview

The Vision 20/20 Project, hosted by the Institution of Fire Engineers USA Branch, has been advancing Community Risk Reduction (CRR) for over 12 years. During this time, the Project has focused on helping the U.S. fire and emergency services understand and integrate CRR principles to build safe, healthy and resilient communities across America. Vision 20/20 has engaged a coalition of organizations and experts to identify gaps and provide dynamic, adaptive, and proven strategies and resources to reduce death, injury and fire loss.

Gaining nationwide support toward integration of CRR principles and practices has been a long, challenging journey that has produced measurable gains. A key success strategy has been to reduce fire risk through the support of working smoke alarms and home safety visit programs within a set of high-risk states. As an incentive, the Project supported these states with smoke alarms funded through Assistance to Firefighters Fire Prevention and Safety grants. By working with stakeholders, Vision 20/20 has crafted methods and materials to help accelerate adoption of best practices at state and local levels through a Statewide Collaboration and Engagement Framework (SCEF).

What’s New: Refined SCEF Framework

Vision 20/20 has significantly enhanced the SCEF to provide states with a clearer roadmap and more actionable guidance. The updated framework includes:
An Enhanced Assessment Matrix that identifies five tier levels (Tier 1 representing the aspired state; Tier 5 representing the entry point) and specifies the progression pathway for states to advance through the matrix. Each tier now includes explicit steps states should take to move to the next level, creating measurable, achievable milestones.
Eight Evidence-Based Best Practices that states can implement in any order and at their own pace to advance within the matrix:

• Statewide Risk Assessment
• Sound Off (Early Childhood Fire Prevention Education)
• Community Risk Intelligence Exchange (Statewide Information Sharing)
• Fire Fatality Review
• Cooking Fire Reduction
• Youth Firesetting Prevention & Intervention (YFPI Support)
• Home Safety Visits (Supporting Working Smoke Alarms and Risk Reduction)
• Firefighter Safety, Health & Wellness

A Multi-Level Support Model that clarifies the distinct and complementary roles of state and local entities. States serve as data aggregators, analysts, technical assistance providers, and resource coordinators—supporting and amplifying the Community Risk Reduction work that occurs at the community level. Local fire departments and their partners remain the primary implementers of CRR programs, adapting evidence-based practices to their unique community context, needs, and resources. This creates a dynamic where safer states are built through the collective efforts of safer communities across that state.

Central to this framework is the utilization of subject matter experts with first-hand success in managing CRR both on a state and local level, called Technical Advisors (TAs). Under the direction of an experienced Project Manager and Technical Advisor Team Leader, each Technical Advisor is assigned to work strategically with partners in their state. The original group of high-risk states that Vision 20/20 has worked with included Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia. Over the course of strategic planning engagements, this group of highly motivated individuals provided insight and guidance across a broad spectrum, developing specific recommendations to improve and streamline the SCEF to better serve the needs of each state with positive implications nationwide. Through these discussions, the program is now better defined, with clear direction and objectives for the technical advisory group to increase participation and engagement in state partnerships. Vision 20/20 continues planning for scalability and focus on growth towards a national effort.

SCEF Vision

To build a national coalition of states engaged in adopting and implementing evidence-based best practices in Community Risk Reduction using inclusive and diverse teams to achieve measurable and sustainable results in building safe, healthy and resilient communities.

SCEF Goals

• Increase the number of working smoke alarms in the United States
• Increase knowledge surrounding the principles and practices of Community Risk Reduction
• Integrate CRR and risk management into all disciplines within the U.S. fire and emergency services
• Bring diversity of discipline and inclusiveness to CRR discussions at the state and national level
• Foster a supportive environment for cultural change across the fire service to support CRR
• Provide training, tools and guidance to State coalitions to support their success
• Build a nationwide coalition of diverse teams to address emerging issues and support legislative efforts for safer, healthy and resilient communities

SCEF Objectives

• Identify state partners interested in developing a collaborative approach to stakeholder involvement in Community Risk Reduction
• Assist in the formative and process phases of collaborative CRR efforts
• Utilize the SCEF Assessment Matrix to evaluate the current landscape and capabilities within any state, identify tier placement, and establish clear advancement pathways
• Focus on eight nationally recognized best practices that provide states with proven strategies and implementation models for CRR advancement
• Provide facilitation, training and guidance for Statewide Community Risk Assessments, CRR strategic planning, best practice implementation and sustainability
• Guide states in progressively advancing through the assessment matrix tiers through well-defined goals, objectives and best practice integration
• Create state-to-local intelligence flows where states analyze and disseminate data-driven insights to support local CRR program targeting and effectiveness
• Support local fire departments and community partners in implementing evidence-based CRR programs adapted to their unique community context and risk priorities
• Drive sustainable statewide efforts by building collaborative, diverse and inclusive teams that provide a pathway to long-term success
• Incentivize states for their participation through grant-funded smoke alarms, access to comprehensive training courses and resources, participation in a national peer network of fire service practitioners, attendance at national CRR symposiums held every two years, and other program incentives and recognition
• Provide recognition and incentives for statewide teams based on assessment tier advancement and outcomes achieved
• Capture best practices, implementation strategies and lessons learned to continuously improve the SCEF and contribute to Vision 20/20’s comprehensive resources for supporting Community Risk Reduction
• Build a coalition of national partners to provide support to states in gaining momentum for national integration of CRR
• Provide opportunities for evaluation and measurement on a state and national level to demonstrate impact and inform continuous improvement
• Develop an unparalleled national network of states to evaluate emerging issues and provide collaborative legislative and policy support

SCEF Summary

The updated Statewide Collaboration and Engagement Framework provides a strategic roadmap for the integration of Community Risk Reduction across the U.S. fire and emergency services. Building on over a dozen years of Vision 20/20 work, this enhanced framework incorporates lessons learned, recognizes the unique context and assets of each state, and provides clear, actionable pathways to sustainable CRR implementation.

The framework is built on a fundamental principle: Community Risk Reduction happens at the local level. Fire departments, working within their communities, are the primary agents of risk assessment, program development, and intervention delivery. State-level coordination, data aggregation, analysis and resource allocation create an essential support infrastructure that enables and amplifies local CRR effectiveness. States serve as the connective tissue that allows individual community efforts to aggregate into statewide impact.

The SCEF Assessment Matrix provides states with a clear understanding of their current position and explicit guidance on advancing toward higher tiers of maturity. Rather than viewing the matrix as evaluative, it is best understood as a learning and growth tool—a journey where a state’s current position is simply a spot on their pathway to success. The integration of eight evidence-based best practices into the matrix means that states have proven, researched implementation models to guide their work, while maintaining flexibility to adapt practices to reflect their unique assets, resources, and community needs.

Each best practice has been developed using a consistent framework that clarifies state-level strategic functions, local-level implementation models, multi-level support architectures, and bidirectional intelligence flows. This approach ensures that states understand not only what to do, but how to support communities in doing it—creating sustainable systems where state infrastructure amplifies community-level impact.
The framework acknowledges that progress is not linear. States advance at their own pace, beginning with foundational activities (coalition building, statewide risk assessment, stakeholder engagement) and progressively integrating best practice initiatives as capacity and resources allow. The key is intentional progression: each step toward Tier 1 represents deepening integration of evidence-based practices, broader stakeholder engagement, sustained resource commitment, and measurable outcomes in community safety.

By providing states with this comprehensive framework—clear assessment methodology, eight evidence-based best practices with implementation guidance, multi-level support models, and access to a national peer network of practitioners—Vision 20/20 enables states to transform their CRR vision into measurable, sustainable results. The ultimate measure of success is not programmatic activity but rather the safety of communities: states guided by this framework should continuously assess whether their CRR efforts are producing measurable reductions in fire incidents, injuries, and deaths—particularly among the populations most burdened by fire risk.

The SCEF is an invitation to states to join a national movement: to embrace Community Risk Reduction as a central fire service strategy, to build diverse coalitions committed to sustainable implementation, to invest in local community safety, and to create a nation where every community is safer through intentional, evidence-based risk reduction.