Strategic Plan
“Consistency with the right strategic plan is the ultimate key to success.
Yesterday’s action would never make up for today’s procrastination.”
― Edmond Mbiaka
Message from the Fire Chief
I am excited to present Unified Fire Authority’s 2024-2026 Strategic Plan. This is the third iteration of the plan which has served to guide our efforts from top to bottom to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our communities and stakeholders. Not only does this plan provide overall guidance for our organization but assists in the development of our annual budget to ensure that tax funds are allocated to programs that meet these needs.
The current planning process began in March 2023 with the selection of an internal Strategic Plan Working Group. This group consisted of 14 sworn and non-sworn employees representing a range of divisions and ranks within Unified Fire Authority.
The first step was to review the existing plan’s goals, key initiatives, and our organization’s overall
Mission, Vision and Values.
The previous plan consisted of:
➢ Sustaining Goals
1. Best Practices
2. Community and Partner Involvement
3. Resilient Culture
4. Professional Development
5. Well-being of our People
➢ Key Initiatives
1. Enhanced Leadership
2. Improved Emergency Services Delivery
3. Improved Community Involvement
4. Improve Behavioral Health
After this initial review, we felt confident that our existing Mission, Vision, Values and strategic goals remain valid and should continue with this strategic plan.
The second step, led by the Strategic Plan Working Group, was a comprehensive SWOC (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Challenges) analysis of our organization from the perspectives of both internal and external stakeholders. Members of this group conducted 73 station meetings, 13 division meetings, 6 community meetings and 1 public safety partner meeting, between July and September 2023. This resulted in the collection of 2,230 data points related to our organization’s current SWOC. These data points were combined to identify roughly 210 themes, which were then categorized to develop Sustaining Goals and Key Initiatives for the next three years. In addition to the existing 5 goals, our review process resulted in an additional sustaining goal “Enhance and Improve Communications.”
I am proud of the work that our organization has accomplished in the last 3 years, which was verified and validated in large part through this planning process. Our work, however, does not end here. We have identified opportunities that will continue to improve our organization’s service within the communities that we serve. Throughout our organization, extraordinary efforts are being made to serve our communities with high quality fire, emergency medical service, and emergency response and planning. I am looking forward to the great work ahead that will be guided by this strategic plan.
Dominic Burchett, Fire Chief
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