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Permalink Reply by Chad Furr on July 2, 2009 at 1:26pm

I belive it is too late this year but look into a SAFER grant.

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Permalink Reply by Capt.Alex Arnold on July 2, 2009 at 1:55pm

Yes, SAFER grants are nice, but they are a temporary solution to a growing issue. There are other ways but they take some creativity. Americorp VISTA offers opportunities. In our department we use VISTA personnel to work on our Public Education and outreach programs.
Taking an opportunity like that helps develop community relationships. I hear from many people in departments of all shapes and sizes tell me...We have a good relationship with the community, but we still don't have the money to do this, that, and others. But it takes more than just a good relationship, it takes buy-in. The community needs to be able to be a functioning part of your agency, and not just at ballot time. It takes a lot of hard work and "sweat equity" to achieve this. The district MUST review what,how,and why they do certain things in the community.
My agency, and more specific my station (the best VFD house in Eastern Washington) has great community support and BUY-IN. We make every attempt to have the Diamond Lake community involved in issues that affect this house. They should because even the small the things that we take for granted can affect them.
Never take for granted the community members. They only know what we tell them.
It's like going to a bank for a loan. You don't just walk in and say, hey I want $25,000. No, you need to show them a plan and get them to "buy-in" to your plan. Your communities that you serve are the bank. Do you offer them opportunities for "Buy-in" into your agency? You may never know unless you try. There maybe someone or some group in your community that may "show you the money".
Good luck. Be safe and learn something new today.

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Permalink Reply by R. Ann Balmer on July 2, 2009 at 3:28pm

We have the safer grant it has been great for us, we are trying to be in the news alot, in our area we have found the more we are in the news, the more we have poeple asking, calling us to volunteer. Our problem in our area is we have very few youth, to midleage, We are a retirement area. We try verry hard to keep the personnel we have. We have been very lucky that we have had very little comflict within the ranks. We have had companies that have close down and personnel with out jobs, having to move, or personnel with jobs that are now taking side jobs. We started a new program that asssist our department personnel with food that is donated by the community, we also provide food to our needy in the communit as well. But at this point that has been all we can do. Any other Ideas on how we can help our firefighter? Thanks for the reply!

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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on July 2, 2009 at 5:41pm

Good luck! Good help in the volli depts is hard ta come by in these days allover. Its not just your dept. I wish i had a answer to the question

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Permalink Reply by Kirk D. Baughman on July 2, 2009 at 8:59pm

i'm with a volunteer department and we are having the same trouble. most of our guys has moved on because they are now with paid departments. plus we have some that just have two jobs now and can't responded maybe 1 or 2 times a month. has your department try getting a rookie school together and get more people? we have two rookie schools each year. the last one we had was back in dec. and we had 3 people.cwe are going to start one in a few days and we have 14 signed up.

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