The New Volunteer – part 2
Yesterday we talked HERE about some of the reasons for declining volunteer participation. The rural areas are obvious, fewer people living in most of those areas. But the newer suburbs are an anomoly. Population growth in the outlying suburbs is high, yet the volunteer fire and rescue departments are not getting new members.
Firegeezer places the blame for that largely on the mindset of the new sub-culture that we refer to as “Yuppies.” Their entire lifestyle is built around self-gratification and reliance on other people to take care of their needs. In their world, progress is measured by how successfully something makes them feel good within themselves. But taking the time and effort to complete a Firefighter I and II program just doesn’t fit in with their pursuit of good times. Not to mention leaving home at the call of the house siren to go help somebody else.
So they have adopted new ways to “help” the community without having to actually do any emergency responding themselves. I first learned of this new method of “volunteering” back in January when I read this ARTICLE about some concerned citizens in a typical new suburb. They became very concerned about their local ambulance station not being staffed from 2 pm when the paid medics went off duty, until 7 or 8 pm when some volunteers would show up.
Their solution was not to find ways to get some volunteers on duty during the afternoons, but to find funding sources and put political pressure on the County Supervisors to hire more paid medics. They had bake sales, fund drives, developed funding sources….in other words, they “volunteered.” They also started hanging around the local firehouse, getting to know the FF’s better and helping spruce up the station. But not once did they think about signing on as emergency workers. What they did was enough….they felt “really, really good” about themselves.
Not surprisingly, there is a national organization now that promotes this type of “volunteerism.” It is called the Fire Corps and is under the umbrella of a Federally funded program, the USA Freedom Corps. The Fire Corps states that their mission is to: ” ….provide resources for departments to utilize citizen advocates in non-operational roles so they can develop, implement, and sustain programs and services that will help their department meet the needs of their community.” Except for actually, you know, responding to emergencies. You can read about the program HERE.
So now we have the New Volunteer, planting flower beds around the stations, fixing meals for the on-duty crew, raising money for new tools. But still nobody to respond to the ever-increasing number of calls.
Tomorrow we will look at some possible solutions to the staffing shortages in the once-volunteer fire and ambulance departments.
Now let’s get the equipment checked. I’ll see you at the coffee table.
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