How Can We Reach The Future Of Our Service

I have the chance to interact with young kids, pre teens, and teenagers a lot. Sometimes it is through coaching, other times it is through my part-time job as a Fire and Safety Technician at a local theme park. When I do I often get the question…

How do you become a firefighter?

Once I begin to explain the process of becoming a firefighter or even an EMT Basic I am often met with the “that’s too much work” response especially by the teenagers.

Perhaps the question is more of a societal question, maybe it is a cultural one, but how can we reach the future of the service? How can we tell them that yes this is a tough job. It will take sacrifice, years of school and classes, time away from your loved ones, an elite level of fitness, etc. It will take all of that but the biggest thing is how do we tell them IT WILL BE WORTH IT!

I was lucky, I came from a fire service family so I did not have to search hard for the direction to go. However not everyone has a dad, brother, uncle, or even a neighbor to look to for inspiration into this career.

Even more simply put how can we turn this…

Into this

Love for the job may not be enough to hook the next generation, but we can not sacrifice the values of our profession to get people to fill our boots. We need to find the right people, not just people.

I know there will always be the fire service kids out there, but they are easy, how can we reach the on the fence ones? The ones that have the potential but may not have the push?

I do not have the answer. What I do know is that it will be tough, it will be hard, it will take sacrifice, but….

IT WILL BE WORTH IT!

As usual thanks for reading, spread the word, and STAY SAFE