Wednesday 07 February 2007 - 17.00hrs
The head of Avon Fire & Rescue Service’s Equality and
Diversity Unit is embarking on a two-month fact-finding trip to the
United States.
Barbara Brown has been invited to shadow Rebecca Denlinger,
Chief Fire Officer of Cobb County Fire and Emergency Service, in
Marietta, North Atlanta, Georgia.
Rebecca made this invite during AF&RS’s international ‘Women
as leaders in the fire and rescue service’ conference last October.
The conference, which looked at the role of women in the fire
service, was entitled ‘Changing the Rules, Roles and Reality’.
During the two days delegates discussed the issues around how to
promote and develop women in a traditionally male-dominated
organisation. CFO Denlinger had already heard about Barbara’s
experiences both before and after joining Avon Fire & Rescue
Service and invited her to the United States to work alongside the
employee relations team in Atlanta.
Speaking ahead of her visit Barbara said ‘It’s about my personal
development as a black woman in the fire service. I’ll be looking
at current practices there, as they have more women who have
internally progressed into higher ranking positions than we do. In
Atlanta itself they also have more black firefighters than we do so
I will be scouting their best practice with a view to bringing it
back to Avon.’
Before Barbara joined Avon Fire & Rescue Service she
practiced contract law and then returned to full time education,
where she completed a Batchelor of Science (with honours) in Social
Welfare and obtained a Diploma in Social Work. She then spent many
years working alongside children in care, young people with drug
and alcohol problems, people with HIV and Black and Ethnic Minority
men in prison.
Since Barbara joined Avon Fire & Rescue Service she has been
working within the Equality and Diversity Unit to develop and
implement the service’s strategic perspective in the area. She’s
also worked at a national level, shaping policy and framework for
the British Fire Service with both the Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister, and the Chief Fire Officers’ Association, and now the
Department for Communities and Local
Government.