Safer Grant For Recruitment and Retention

of Alabama Firefighters

The Alabama Firefighters Association Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Project kicked off its campaign February 3, 2009 in Tuscaloosa at the Fire Chiefs Executive Development Conference. Tim Bailey, AFA President, informed the fire chiefs of the grant and its objectives. During the week, fire chiefs were given a chance to complete a survey that would allow them to give their input on recruitment and retention ideas. At the booth, individuals could sign pledge cards in support of the project.

The Alabama Firefighters Association was awarded a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant through the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighter Grant Program for $300,000 on August 22, 2008. This money is being used for a recruitment and retention campaign. The goal of the SAFER Grant is to enhance the local fire departments’ abilities to comply with staffing, response, and operational standards established by NFPA and OSHA (NFPA 1720 and/or 1720 and OSHA 1910.134). Although the SAFER Grant was awarded to AFA, the project will benefit all volunteer fire departments and firefighter organizations in Alabama.

This one year project will develop an advertising campaign targeting the minority and female population to increase the number of volunteers from this population demographic, to retain current volunteers, and develop a statistical database. The grant will be used to implement the National Volunteer Fire Council’s Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment Kit to create a public awareness campaign.

Specifically, SAFER funds should assist local fire departments to increase their staffing and deployment capabilities in order to respond to emergencies whenever they may occur. As a result of the enhanced staffing, response times should be sufficiently reduced with an appropriate number of personnel assembled at the incident scene. Also, the enhanced staffing should provide that all front-line/first-due apparatus of SAFER grantees have a minimum of four trained personnel to meet the OSHA standards referenced above. Ultimately, a faster, safer, and more efficient incident scene will be established and communities will have more adequate protection from fire and fire-related hazards.

The AFA Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Project contacted different fire related organizations in Alabama to gain their support. The State Fire Marshal, Alabama Forestry Commission, VFIS Southeast, Alabama Association of Volunteer Fire Departments and Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs all have signed resolutions in support of Alabama’s need for more volunteer firefighters.

Will you answer the call? We want your support too. Anyone who is interested in helping with this campaign can contact Katie Johnson at kjohnson@firerescuehelp.com.