How to resolve AdBlock issue? HALFMOON — As volunteer firefighters throughout the state of New York have noticed a large downfall in volunteers in recent years, the Fireman’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY) has launched a mass media campaign in an effort to bring their numbers up again.
With around 1,800 volunteer fire departments in the state, numbers of firefighters were steady as ever just 10 to 15 years ago with about 110,000 volunteer firefighters serving their communities.
Just over a decade later, that number has fallen drastically to between 85—88,000 volunteer firefighters.
“We know that the trend is going in the wrong direction and that less and less people are becoming volunteer firefighters,” said John D’Alessandro, a FASNY member, volunteer firefighter and firefighter commissioner in the Halfmoon department and fire district. “It depends on each department—some are lucky where they’re getting new members and have enough to be able to accomplish their mission, but others aren’t. A lot of the existing members are getting older and can’t be there as often or physically perform all the tasks, so some fire departments are in dire need.”
After members of FASNY began realizing the critical need for new volunteers throughout the state, they decided to apply for a federal grant to help initiate a campaign to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters.
In August of 2011, FASNY received a $4.2 million grant called SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) with the goal of recruiting an additional 15,000 volunteers by August of 2015.
The grant has allowed the organization to launch a mass media campaign, including buying television and radio time, billboards, social media and creating incentives for volunteers to join.
One of those incentives is tuition reimbursement: Any volunteer firefighter, current or new, in good standing at their school and fire department are eligible to get up to 100 percent of their tuition at a New York community college reimbursed.
“It’s based on your grades because we wanted there to be some incentives—not just have people sit in a classroom and think, ‘I’m going to get this money no matter what,’” D’Alessandro said. “The better they do, the more money they get back.”
The only stipulations for the tuition reimbursement program are that students can’t already have a college degree or have taken more than 80 credits and must be in good standing with their fire department.
“This is the fourth semester we’ve done it,” D’Alessandro said. “We have about 200 students statewide involved in the program who are getting reimbursements.”
In addition to the media campaign and tuition reimbursement program, FASNY also hired six part-time employees to focus on the major regions of New York to determine how to strategically assist fire departments that are having manpower problems to try and get people to join.
“There are a lot of different populations and perceptions and attitudes throughout New York—what might work in Saratoga County might not work up in the Adirondacks or in a more rural area,” D’Alessandro said. “So we decided early on we are not going to have a one-size-fits-all, ‘This is what you need to do to get volunteers’ kind of attitude. We’ll work with you and try to sit with you and figure out why you’re having a problem and what’s the best way to try and attract new people.”
FASNY conducted two focus groups to confirm the main reasons they believed volunteerism was declining in volunteer fire departments and found that the main concerns most people have are issues with time, believing they don’t have the courage and believing they just wouldn’t know what to do.
“As for the time, it’s definitely true—you can’t really put in a little here or a little there,” D’Alessandro admitted. “If you truly want to become a volunteer firefighter there’s a tremendous amount of training, and every department has different time commitment requirements.”
D’Alessandro added that the time commitment does get easier after your first year of training is completed.
“The time commitment is greater in the beginning because you do have to do your initial training, but after your first year you can moderate the amount of time you put in and work being a volunteer firefighter into your schedule,” he said.
As for the second concern of “just not having it in you,” D’Alessandro said that a lot of times people don’t really know that about themselves until they are put to the test.
“A lot of people think that’s what they’re about but they find out it’s not,” he said. “We move in a planned, cautious, trained manner to diffuse a bad situation or avert a bad situation. Yes, it’s dangerous, but it’s a calculated risk and our mission is to preserve and protect lives and property, though within certain reasonable parameters.”
D’Alessandro said people who are interested in volunteering but are concerned about their lack of training have nothing to worry about—all volunteer fire departments offer training completely free of charge. He added that if you do come to training and decide that firefighting isn’t for you, there are still plenty of other ways you can volunteer your time to help out local fire departments.
“You don’t always have to be a guy at the end of the hose running into the building,” D’Alessandro said. “Every department is a small business and we have office functions and maintenance functions—when crews come back from a call, if there were other people to help restock and clean, that would take that burden off our firefighters. There’s a job and a place for anyone and everyone.”
“We’re trying to sensitize people—come visit us and talk to us and see what’s there,” he continued. “You might just want to come in and cook a monthly meal or do the books for us or light office work and cleaning. We know that once you get a taste of it and see the firefighting end of it, it’s very addictive.”
Three Reasons for Recent Decline in Volunteer Firefighters
- I don’t have the time.
- It’s not in me! I’m the guy or the woman running away from the emergency—not running to it.
- I don’t have the training—I wouldn’t know what to do!
“Focus groups found these were the three main reasons volunteerism has declined, so when we started the campaign, we had to come up with a tagline and approach that addressed these three issues.” —John D’Alessandro, volunteer firefighter and commissioner
