Colorado Agency`s Newsletter Helps Create Connection With Community

In an attempt to create an open channel of communication with the community and keep staff informed, Platte Valley Ambulance Service in Brighton, CO, has adopted a weekly informational newsletter program.

The program, which is run by Chief Paramedic Carl Craigle and began in early summer of last year, collects information from events throughout the week and assembles the news into a newsletter for public consumption.

“It gives me a good reason to get out from behind the desk and be with the folks in our community,” Craigle says.

If Craigle himself can’t make it, he sends other crew members or leadership team members to gather information and take pictures. He puts the information into the newsletter, leaving space to recognize individual paramedics who participated. When possible, Craigle says he tries to recognize other local agencies to give credit where credit is due.

When the product is finished, it is put on social media for the general public and e-mailed to employees and key stakeholders, including the chiefs of police, fire chiefs and other vendors, Craigle says. Seeing the newsletter allows these organizations to get some context about the types of things PVAS does.

Craigle says the most important aspect of the newsletter is to create a relationship with the community. PVAS serves a total of approximately 80,000 people across eight counties, two of which are unincorporated.

The newsletter helps people in those communities know about the agency, Craigle says. PVAS is not affiliated with the local fire departments, which Craigle says creates a bit of a challenge because people often think they are. The newsletter helps debunk that theory.

“We want people to know we exist, and that we have for 43 years,” Craigle says. “We want them to know this is what we do on a day-to-day basis.”

Craigle says a common mistake agencies make is not trying to proactively grow a relationship with their community before it’s too late.

“If you don’t make the effort to get in front of people, you’re always meeting people on the worst possible day they’re going to have,” Craigle says.

Craigle says it’s difficult to make a positive, lasting first impression when you’re meeting people for the first time on a 9-1-1 call.

The newsletter was created mainly in an attempt to satisfy a goal set by the agency in their five-year plan to keep people more up to speed and informed on events relating to the agency, Craigle says.

So far, the response to the newsletter has been overwhelmingly positive, and it has been almost immediate.

“They appreciate the effort that’s being made on their behalf,” Craigle says.

For any agencies considering implementing a newsletter program, Craigle says his advice would be to jump right into it.

“Just do it,” Craigle says. “Don’t wait, get the process started and that will be the motivation to continue it.”

Craigle says the newsletter will not be perfect at first, but getting into the rhythm of finishing it and knowing what information to include will make the process easier as it goes along.

Craigle credits the Richmond Ambulance Authority for inspiring them to create the newsletter. Although the RAA’s Word on the Street newsletter is daily and the programs have some differences, Craigle says the RAA’s newsletter is what gave them the idea to create their own.