NVFC Launches new Junior Firefighter Recruitment Video

The National Volunteer Fire Council has launched a new recruitment video aimed at attracting young people to the volunteer fire service. Funded by a grant from Tyco, the video shares testimonials from several existing junior firefighters, leveraging the power of referral from these young adults. The NVFC page that introduces the new resource also includes [...]

FEMA Provides Youth-Based Workshops

Leading educators and scholars in the field of preparedness education consider our nation’s youth to be the best envoy for taking preparedness messages home to their families. In order to better prepare our nation’s youth to bring preparedness home, FEMA is providing technical assistance workshops to state and local practitioners who support youth-based programs and [...]

Satisfied with Success

I recently received this email from a fire department who found the resources at FireRECRUITER.com to be helpful to them in their recruitment and retention efforts. Perhaps it will inspire others to make a go of it and invest the time and energy into writing a SAFER grant application and in general, do something about [...]

Got Cash for College?

A college education is one of the greatest gifts and rewards we can ever offer a volunteer firefighter. Giving them the opportunity to earn a college degree makes them more employable. Making them more employable offers them the opportunity to secure and succeed at a better paying job. Succeeding at a better paying job offers them [...]

Funk or Junk? Rockland’s Bravest

The FireRECRUITER’s helmet is off to my good friend and fellow recruiter Frank Hutton and Rockland County’s Creative Approach to the Fire Service Committee for putting forth a great effort in addressing recruitment and retention in their region. With the help of a SAFER grant from the US Department of Homeland Security, they’ve produced a web [...]

FireRECRUITER Goes to Indy

Tiger Schmittendorf, aka the “FireRECRUITER” will be going back to Indianapolis later this month to present at FDIC – the Fire Department Instructors Conference – the largest gathering of firefighters in the world. He’ll be presenting “Understanding and Motivating Today’s Firefighters” as a repeat performance of “From the X-Box to the Box Alarm” presented at [...]

Walking the Walk and Living it up like a Live-in!

I’m so intrigued by firehouse live-in programs that later this week, the FireRECRUITER is traveling to Hyattsville MD — home to one of the longest standing and most successful bunk in programs in the fire service — and home to the X-Box Firefighters who created FDLiveIn.com. And to get a better understanding and appreciation for the program, I’ll [...]

Is this the ultimate bunk-in program?

Last week’s release of the highly popular article: Can you afford to live without a live-in? garnered a lot of attention and peaked my own attention to the idea. Thus, the FireRECRUITER has significant plans to connect with www.fdlivein.com soon to expand on this innovative concept and share success stories of staffing firehouses with college students or other appropriate [...]

Can you afford to live without a live-in?

As many volunteer fire departments struggle to maintain adequate staffing, there’s still a long-standing solution available that is often overlooked. Like many of the challenges we face, the solution to inadequate staffing may require more imagination and sheer will than it takes time or money to overcome them.

Roll With It!

“Roll With It!” is a part music video, part movie trailer — full-on high energy – high impact web site for the recruitment of emergency services personnel.