The Downtown Stratford BIA is aiming to help its members make their businesses a little safer and more secure with an information session on Monday evening.
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The session at City Hall’s auditorium will feature presentations from Stratford Police Const. Darren Fischer and Barry Boughen of St. John Ambulance.
“The whole purpose of these workshops that we’re doing is trying to get downtown businesses, and businesses from outside of downtown, to give them the resources and let them know what’s out there to help,” said BIA general manager Jamie Pritchard.
“When we think about our small businesses . . . there’s big corporations that have all kinds of different departments that deal with this kind of thing, and have a big HR department and all that kind of stuff. A small business has to rely more on themselves and what they can find, and we’re just trying to get information right at their fingertips,” he added.
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Fischer will speak on how business owners can protect themselves from theft and vandalism, while Boughen will provide insights on regulations regarding first-aid (what kit to have, who needs to be trained) and provide CPR demonstrations.
This is the second such workshop the BIA has done, following a previous event on mental health in the workplace. According to Pritchard, mental health, along with safety and security, are some of the many issues that new business owners have to navigate or may be aware of when they first start out.
“When you get into things like regulations, do I have to have a first-aid kit? Do I need to have someone trained in first aid? Do I need to do Naloxone training? What are my responsibilities there? There are a lot of questions,” he noted.
“There are going to be businesses that have no interest in that. I know that those topics, as we continue on these little workshops that we do, I’m sure there’s always something that somebody could learn,” he said, adding there are many new business owners in Stratford.
“New business people probably suck up these resources at a lot faster pace than someone who’s done business for 50 years.”
The Safety, Security, Shoplifting, Security Audits, and Medical Assistance information session runs Monday, July 15, from 7 pm to 9 pm at city hall. To register, click here.
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