Creating a Culture of Safety
At work, we face many safety issues.
Everything from slippery ice conditions under our feet and tires to typical day-to-day activities in our office can introduce potential hazards. Add to that a large team of volunteers, some in their first year of service with us, and service to a population that may be using drugs, lacking sleep, suffering from hypothermia, criminals, or prone to violence, and one can understand why we always put a premium on safety.
To prepare our delivery team, The Blue Coat Missionaries, we aim for 100% participation in our annual Training and Safety Course.
Other safety-related small projects from this season included:
- Addition of lighting on our east parking lot at HQ
- A fire and smoke alarm was added to our building
- Fire Safety plans for all areas of the building were designed and posted
- Added ten high-visibility coats to the outreach team equipment
Annual Training
Like any team that wants to be the best at what they do, we continue to train because what we do is not always safe. This year’s training was the best we have ever conducted! Puncture wound treatment, sprains and breaks, drug overdose, situational awareness, de-escalation, and treating frostbite and hypothermia were all high-priority topics. Subject matter experts were contracted for topics that might help a member of our team or the many people experiencing homelessness whom we serve.
Our training goal was 100% participation, which we met. We provided the video link since everyone could not attend the training on the original date.
Corrective Action Requests (CARS)
When members of The Sub Zero Mission encounter a safety issue, they are instructed to escalate it to their squad leader and the team Safety Officer. Depending on the risk or severity, the issue is reviewed by our leadership team, and a Corrective Action Request (CAR) is created. This will remain in “Open” status until a correction has been determined, the team has been communicated, or training has occurred.
We set a goal every year to have no open CARs at the end of our delivery season, the first day of Spring. CARS was opened for eight safety issues this year.
We DID NOT MEET our goal to have all CARs closed.
Corrective Action Requests:
15 June 23: Identified safety hazard of personnel walking around buses while moving in and out of the garage.
Action taken: Training on the new policy of either being on the bus or remaining in the bluecoat area while buses are being moved was provided. Signs with the new policy were also hung.
15 June 23: No handrail or stair tread on the stairs going up makes it a slip hazard to bear cave.
Action Taken: No railing due to the narrow staircase, however, stair treads installed to prevent slips.
15 June 23: Moving vehicles in and out of the garage can be nerve-racking due to the minimal space between the bus and garage door frame.
Action taken: All drivers were trained on the new policy, and signage was posted requiring a ground guide when vehicles moved in and out of the garage.
15 August 23: The identified East side of the building has no lighting outside during dark hours. We periodically have meetings, missions, vehicles left unattended on that side of the building, and personnel who exit the building during dark hours.
Action taken: Photocell lights and a 360-degree camera were installed for lighting and security.
1 January 24: Summer wind back door could come open in motion due to rough roads, bouncing around, or someone leaning against them.
Action taken: A bungee and eye hook were installed to hold down the latch/handle. It seems to have worked; however, a secondary safety bar should be installed across both doors.
22 January 24: Working on busses inside the garage during winter time, when running, the exhaust fumes can build up and trip our carbon monoxide alarm (which it did).
Action taken: A mobile exhaust fan and 32′ hose were purchased to route exhaust fumes outside by opening the garage door.
30 January 24: Complaints of exhaust fumes in the rear cabin of summer wind.
Action taken: Switches in the back were found to be faulty, and the boots did not turn on the small exhaust fan. Also, we are looking into extending the exhaust to a rear exit. STATUS OPEN
30 January 24: Drivers look at their phones for locations on missions because their GPS is outdated or not updated with current information.
Action taken: New dashboard display units were purchased and will be uploaded with a repository of pinned SZM locations and updated regularly.
Open CARs Goal MET – Currently, there are one out of fourteen open CARs.
Bus Maintenance, Upgrades, and Repairs
Our Fleet consists of a retired Ohio Fire Marshall command center (The Summer Wind), a long bus (The Pamela Dawn), an all-purpose Topkick truck (Fury), pulls a 16ft trailer (Cool Breeze), and, sometimes, in the trailer, we have our side by side 4×4 (Scrape). We are primarily military people… We name everything! When something has a name, people bond to that bond, which leads to better care and maintenance.
The fleet is arguably our most important asset outside our team members. Each vehicle is modified to work in certain terrains, situations, and distances from our headquarters.
Our “offseason” is often filled with small projects for the vehicles peppered into calendar gaps around our Summer Event schedule. Last Summer, some small projects turned into larger ones. One example is our lengthy bus rust repairs. What started as repairing a few rust spots turned into a complete replacement of body panels and the underlying attachment grid with aluminum instead of steel. A budget of $3000 ballooned to $12,000 with paint and lettering.
See pictures from the project:
Status Light Goal
We monitor the statuses of “the big three” vehicles with a whiteboard with a picture of a stop light representing each vehicle. Our goal each year is to be on the first day of Spring with a “green light” status on all vehicles. Any non-start, high possibility of breakdown, potential of further or permanent damage to the car, or any safety issue will put the vehicle into “red light.” A “yellow light” will indicate maintenance issues and minor items needing to be addressed.
We MET our Bus Status Goal, with three-thirds of the main three vehicles being green-lit to end the delivery season.
This year, we pushed ourselves and our vehicles harder and farther than any year since our inception. We put our vehicles through Hell. Our Motor T Team is among our Mission’s most vital and closest teams. While we may have met the goal, we have a lot of work to do in our “off-season” to address various maintenance and repair items. I can count on our team to prepare these vehicles for the next season!
Discussions with our team gave us the following findings to be worked on in the off-season:
- We failed to engage at the “100 Day Mark fully.” This is the August 23rd date, which means we are 100 days from our first deployment. During this period, we work to periodically get our team back into Headquarters for training and maintenance activities. Our entire Blue Coat Missionary (Outreach and Delivery) team will meet on this date each year in the future. This will allow us to identify those remaining items to prepare for the season.
- Our Motor T team has two diesel mechanics. One of the mechanics could not participate in our delivery season due to personal reasons, which put an inordinate amount of work on the remaining mechanics. We must bring two more mechanics specializing in our vehicles onto our team.
- The many missions we performed this year greatly strained an aging fleet. While some things might have been spotted during preventative maintenance, many were the product of “climb and place.” We go where many people do not. Bad roads, big bumps, cold temperatures, long and short missions, and starting and stopping all take a toll. We will maintain and harden our fleet in the offseason.
Our command center, “Summer Wind,” will need some upgrades in the ground team portion. This includes:
- Hold bars to help with balance while turning
- The crewman door has a broken closing mechanism
- The bench seat requires some shock absorption solution
- All corners of equipment should be covered with corner padding
- The rail along the stairwell should be modified to allow for better use and leverage
- The foot rail should be raised
- Seating should allow for some recline
- Rear double doors need to be modified for security while in motion, but use for areas where man door is not a safe option (it is on the driver’s side).
- Several electrical issues need to be addressed
Observational Safety While on Mission
This year, I went on every Mission. I was able to observe personally, note training issues that did not need to be addressed immediately, find teachable moments for squad leaders and drivers, and ensure that safety issues encountered were properly noted and addressed with priority.
Breakdowns are one of the more dangerous situations for us. We are typically out when the weather is the worst. The visibility is poor. We took every opportunity that we could to practice roadside safety measures. We discussed scenarios where it might be safer to be in the vehicle and when to evacuate the team. This training paid off on our return trip from Chicago when our truck had mechanical issues on the freeway.
Blue Fire! Blue Fire!
Not every delivery goes smoothly. Not every person we encounter wants to see us. Not every place we go is safe. We can enter a situation and feel secure, but the problem can change quickly. We have learned through the years that sometimes, we return to our vehicle and go.
Every person on our team is empowered to recognize a safety issue and call a mission stop. In the field, we use our code word “Blue Fire” to contact our team to action. If this is heard on the radio or by word of mouth, it means getting back into the vehicle and reporting it to the mission lead. The mission lead will assess the situation and decide whether to redeploy or exit the area.
This is from Chicago. We did not know, but before we arrived, there had been an altercation in a bread line between local people experiencing homelessness and a group of illegal immigrants. At around the 12-minute mark, it reignites.
Not knowing if this would escalate or become a gunfight, our team called our rally word, and we packed up and left. Unbeknownst to us at the time, our partner team was creating online content at the time, and the situation is available for review. Our team reviewed this together, and we were able to identify several safety improvement opportunities. These were used as a team-wide teachable moment and added to our permanent training.
The safety of our team takes precedence. Here is the video:
Bus Breakdown Training Pays Off!
Veterans Helping Veterans
It says it on the side of every one of our vehicles.
It has meaning for other veterans.
We were returning from Chicago recently and ran into some engine or transmission trouble that forced us to the side of the road in a hazardous area. We got the triangles and flared out, but the trucks were still hammered by us close, and we even snapped one of our triangles off the base.
Scott Trost, a 30-year Army veteran, went by us and knew he had to help due to the dangerous spot.
I was inside the vehicle when I saw him pull up behind us. I asked him if we needed to move further off the road.
He said, “I was plowing the other lane when I saw the side of your vehicle said, ‘Veterans Helping Veterans.’ I thought I better come and check things out.”
Scott acted as the world’s biggest road flare for us and protected our vehicle until our second truck returned to our mechanic.
“Our guys aren’t far off. You don’t have to wait,” I said.
“No way. Veterans don’t leave veterans behind,” he said.
No. No, they don’t, Scott. I feel the same way!
Before Scott’s arrival, I was immensely proud of our team. We communicated well on our radios, and we all knew where the safety equipment was. We used our training to pull to safety, calmly deploy our safety equipment, and assess the situation. This was all covered in our annual training and several times throughout the season in pop-up training modules.
I write an annual report for our volunteers, board members, supporters, and donors. It is usually in the Spring after we have completed our final outreach missions to find people experiencing homelessness. I am writing the report a little earlier than most years this year. Our goal is always to serve those in need until we run out of supplies or until the first day of Spring. This year, the weather turned more quickly, and we started to feel the warmth of Spring earlier than in years past. As our fleet of vehicles was all in need of attention, we chose to end our season early and avoid risking our buses or putting our team at risk.
Please note that our website will post two IRS Form 990s this year. One is for a short filing year; the other will represent the abovementioned period as our new fiscal year filing.
Ron has spent the last 45 years in senior and executive leadership roles at the second-largest automobile insurance company in the US. He believes great leaders motivate others to perform, create, innovate, and grow. They remove barriers, provide honest and constructive feedback, and hold themselves to the same high standards they expect from the people they lead. Great leaders continuously hone and refine their skills. He retired at the end of 2023 but intends to continue refining his skills.
Due to the addition of this vehicle, we estimate that we were able to find and reach at least 100 people experiencing homelessness this year.
Sometimes, volunteering can feel less rewarding when volunteers do not directly see the result of their efforts. Our outreach team is “right-sized.” There is not always an opportunity to volunteer in the winter. Currently, we have 10-15 people who serve on both teams.
The team that comes to our office every week has been great! Our group has several people who have Down’s Syndrome and a few others who are on the spectrum for autism. All are very high functioning. They worked to fill over 1000 of our “blessing bags” that we hand out on our
The committee has a licensed CPA, two trustees, and a reporting specialist. Our trustees verify all spending and flag non-project or high-cost transactions for review, bank transactions, etc. The team also assists the Board of Directors by reviewing budget requests and advising, aligning spending with cost codes, taxes, and all other aspects of our money management.
The content in the first graphic novels was not great for younger readers, though. I wanted to find a way to involve kids 8-11 without the heavy topics of mental health and drug use.
The Ashtabula Area Ministerial Alliance honored us with the Cup of Cold Water Award, which is given annually to people and organizations serving the community.
I was honored to accept the Willoughby Rotary Club Distinguished Civic Organization of the Year Award on behalf of my team.