Innovative approaches in local governments: social innovation, participation, volunteerism and volunteer fire service in Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

In this dissertation; the subject of Voluntary Firefighting was evaluated within the scope of Social Innovation, Participation and Volunteerism in Local Governments Under the title of Innovative Approaches in Local Governments. Unlike other studies, the subject of voluntary firefighting is evaluated in the context of social innovation and participation in this research. In terms of its cost and contributing to the awareness of the sense of citizenship and belonging, the opportunity of early intervention in the fire incidents that occur in rural areas that are distanced to professional fire stations, also the participation of the public in local government activities are some significant contributions of Voluntary Firefighting practices. In this thesis, both the activities of voluntary firefighting the practices within the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Fire Brigade Department and the examples from the world and Turkey were investigated. In-depth interviews were conducted with the managers working in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Department of Fire Brigade and with mukhtars and volunteer firefighters who are locally responsible for volunteer firefighting, 10 questions were directed to the managers, and 5 questions were asked to the head and responsible people of the villages with a volunteer fire station. How volunteer firefighting activities started? What kind of contributions they made to the fire brigade and local people in social and economic terms? The status of volunteer firefighting activities in Istanbul compared to the developed countries of the world. How their needs were met? The legal basis of volunteer firefighting. Its evaluation in terms of benefits and costs and the development of the application. What is planned to develop the application? An evaluation was made in the light of these questions and their answers. According to the results of the research; The work of the firefighting organizations in our country on voluntary firefighting has recently started. As a result of the studies carried out, it has been determined that early intervention to fire and other disasters for local administrations and the public, participation of the people in local government activities and economically significant contributions have been achieved and the implementation is continued efficiently in the places where it was initiated. In order to reach the level of the developed countries of the world in this regard, it was decided that the volunteer potential of the local people could be better evaluated, the potential of volunteer firefighting in the cities could be considered, and volunteer firefighting could be evaluated in a wider range by considering disasters such as earthquakes and floods. Based on the importance of the subject, it has been concluded that the development of voluntary firefighting practices by implementing more awareness raising and incentives will have many administrative, social and economic contributions. Keywords: Firefighting, Participation, Social innovation, Volunteer Firefighting, Volunteerism