Recruiting and retaining volunteers in your department is an important and exciting part of your job as a leader. Understanding why volunteers decide to stay at your department requires individualized relationships and conversations with each person. Mentorship offers a significant return on investment for both the department and the volunteer, and it asks leaders to

An important aspect of recruitment and retention is asking volunteers how they feel about their experiences and using their feedback to make improvements in the department. But how do you narrow down the right questions, how do you ask them, and perhaps most importantly, what do you do with the answers you get? And if

This Congress, the NVFC will be supporting funding for Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG), Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants (SAFER), the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), Volunteer Fire Assistance Grants (VFA), National Firefighter Registry (NFR), and Rural EMS Training (SIREN) Grants. The NVFC will also be advocating for the passage of legislation to

Many volunteer fire and EMS departments struggle to maintain sufficient staffing. Major factors contributing to recruitment challenges include increased time demands, more rigorous training requirements, and the proliferation of two-income families whose members do not have time to volunteer. So, how can departments attract volunteers and encourage them to stick around, despite these challenges? This

Many of us have taken the basic four-hour National Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Training Course, but now what? Since 2019, 33 fire and EMS providers have been struck and killed in the United States along with another 173 law enforcement, tow truck operators, and DOT workers. This webinar presented by Todd Leiss will look at

Join Dr. Candice "Retention" McDonald and special guest Tiger "Recruitment" Schmittendorf for a live 30-minute discussion via Zoom to connect with others and brainstorm on issues facing today's volunteer fire service. Join the event on April 29 at 11:30am ET here: bit.ly/NVFCZoom