SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS NJ SUMMIT ON VOLUNTEERISM IN THE EMERGENCY SERVICES February 26, 2011 Middlesex County Fire Academy, Sayreville, NJ

On February 26, 2011, over 100 leaders of local volunteer fire departments and first aid squads from all parts of the state attended the NJ Summit on Volunteerism in the Emergency Services, held at the Middlesex County Fire Academy. The Summit was sponsored by the NJ Fire and Emergency Medical Services Institute with the support of the NJ First Aid Council and the NJ State Fire Chiefs Association. Participants were about evenly split between the fire and emergency medical services.

Carl Christensen, President of the Institute, opened the program.  In addition to his welcome, he read a letter from Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno expressing the support of State government for volunteerism.

Christensen then introduced David Matos, Jr., Institute Executive Director, who reviewed some of the successes of the Institute, particularly creation of the NJ Legislative Fire Services Caucus, publication of the Highway Traffic Safety Guidelines and the adoption of the ‘Move Over’ law.  He then stated that the goal of Summit is to come up with an action plan to start to rebuild the tradition of volunteerism in fire and EMS in New Jersey. He reviewed the agenda for the day and vowed that the Institute will aggressively promote the action plan.

Mr. Matos then moderated a panel of distinguished speakers who discussed the current state of volunteerism in New Jersey.

Rowena Madden, Director of the Governor’s Office of Volunteerism provided a statewide overview of volunteerism.  New Jersey doesn’t rank high among the states in rates of  volunteerism.  There are many groups actively promoting volunteerism in the state, including VOAD/COAD, Citizens Corps, and AmeriCorps (there are 700 members in New Jersey working in 60 agencies), with most counties also having an Office on Volunteerism.  She concluded, “Want your recommendations on how we can help.”

Panelist George Fosdick, Mayor of Ridgefield Park, observed why volunteerism is important  from the municipal government view point. Fosdick is also a former Fire Chief in his town. He expressed a theme which came up repeatedly during the Summit: that emergency services aren’t doing an adequate job explaining what we do. Questions persist such as, “Why do you need so many fire companies?", or, "Why do you need an aerial when there are no high rise buildings in town?” The volunteer fire department saves towns a lot of money; but how much?

Mayor Fosdick discussed the savings provided to municipalities by volunteer firefighters and EMS. Pointing out one example, in Palisades Park, Bergen County, the police budget comprises  $800 in a typical household tax bill; the fire budget portion for the same household is $89.  A career fire department would cost about $800 per household.

Fosdick suggested meeting with local clubs, editorial writers, and others and inform them about volunteer fire and EMS services, organizations and the advantages we provide.

Panelist Barbara Aras, President of the NJ State First Aid Council noted that on September 11th, 80% of the responders from New Jersey were volunteers.

The NJ State First Aid Council represents 27,000 responders.  They answered 380,000 calls in 2009, providing 2,700,000 hours of service and $650 million in savings to New Jersey taxpayers.

Aras noted that highly trained EMTs are available around the clock and provide tax relief as volunteers. Problems facing EMS today include inflexibility in mandated training requirements.  Leadership training and a retention plan for volunteers are needed.  Many squad members leave the service because of internal conflicts in their local organizations. She also called for greater efforts to educate the public on the nature and benefits of volunteer emergency services.

 The final panelist to speak was Jeffrey Betz, First Vice President of the NJ State Fire Chiefs Association. He described volunteer firefighters as having much “passion” for their work. Today, fire departments are responding to more alarms which taxes the individual’s time, while the average age of volunteers is increasing. He noted that a national volunteer recruitment effort, “1-800-FIRELINE”, received over 6000 calls in 2009.
 
Next, Linda Czipo, Executive Director of the Center for Non Profits, facilitated a plenary session.  The mission of the Center for Non Profits is to strengthen nonprofit organizations.

Participants shared their responses to two questions: 
"What is your ideal vision for a strong volunteer community in fire and EMS?", and,
"What is working well currently in advancing that mission?"

The following ‘vision’ was developed through the statements of many of the Summit attendees.

New Jersey will have strong emergency services organizations whose purposes and needs are well known and appreciated by the communities they serve and by the general public. Local fire departments and first aid squads are well staffed by highly qualified volunteers who respond to all types of emergencies during daytime and nighttime hours. Volunteer emergency responders are highly trained because progressive training opportunities are readily available. Their organizations have strong leadership and good internal and external communications. Volunteers are valued by their communities for their contributions and sacrifices. There is significant coverage of their activities by local media, and the organizations are regularly approached by members of the community to offer support and to become involved. Incentives are available to promote volunteerism in such areas as insurance, tax and tuition benefits; and to businesses that release employees during the workday to respond to emergency calls.
 
Among the things that are working well to promote achieving the ‘vision’ are junior and cadet programs, the use of mentors to support new volunteers, encouraging a ‘family’ atmosphere within the organization, getting new volunteers involved immediately, and providing in-service training opportunities.

At this point, the Summit was divided into four breakout groups.  Each group was asked to address three questions within the context of their topic:  (1) What are some of the obstacles to volunteer recruitment and retention?  (2) What are some key steps to eliminate them?  (3) What are the important next steps?

The results of each group’s work is summarized below.

Public Relations and Outreach

Short term activities

• Assign responsibility for public relations to a specific individual or a committee
• Target specific elements of the community for outreach such as students, returning military veterans or senior citizens
• Bring the organization to centers of community activity such as meetings of local governmental bodies or civic groups
• Establish relationships with local media

Long term activities

• Develop a statewide public awareness/volunteer recruitment campaign that can be individualized for use by local organizations
• Develop more effective training for volunteers responsible for public relations/communications

Strategic Partnership with Local Government and Communities

Short Term activities

• Make high quality presentations
• Use existing groups such as the League of Municipalities to deliver the message; prepare an article for the League magazine
• Provide ‘links’ for the community to fire and EMS volunteer organizations such as kids nights, pancake breakfasts, parades, etc.

 Long term activities

• Educate local elected officials on your operations and needs; let them educate you regarding their processes and needs
• Develop an advocacy agenda

Legislative and Regulatory Affairs

Activities

• Determine if training requirements are too burdensome on volunteers
• Make it easier to demonstrate competency
• Allow ‘testing out’
• Decentralize training delivery to make opportunities more locally accessible
• Provide more online and daytime training
• Volunteer fire and EMS must develop a stronger, united voice on policy issues
• Make efforts to better inform legislators and government officials
• Develop better understanding of legislative/governmental processes
• Explore additional incentives for volunteers such as tax, housing, employment and health insurance benefits
• Need to develop accurate, accessible data on fire and EMS volunteers in New Jersey that will document the benefits provided by volunteer emergency service organizations and to enable good planning to meet future community needs

Volunteer Management

Activities

• Provide mentors for all new volunteers
• Share best practices
• Choose officers based on assessment of competency and qualifications
• Have a formal, defined officer development process in your organization
• Develop a strategic/business plan for your organization

In closing remarks, David Matos thanked everyone for attending, offering special recognition to the Center for Non-profits, the panelists and the group facilitators.  He also acknowledged the participation of State Senator Diane Allen and of Karen Halupke, Director of the NJ Office of Emergency Medical Services.who attended the session.