FEMA-Funded Program is ‘FOCUS-ing’ on Measuring Safety Climate in Combination, Volunteer Fire and Rescue Departments

February 18, 2025

In 2023, the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST) at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health was awarded continued funding from FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters’ Fire Prevention and Safety Grants program to launch CANVAS, the “Combination and Volunteer Assessment of Safety.”

CANVAS responds to National Life Safety Initiative #1, designed to measurably change firefighter behavior and decision-making. It builds on previous FIRST Center safety culture work in its Fire service Organizational Culture of Safety (FOCUS) portfolio. FOCUS was developed under FEMA grants to create the first fire service-specific safety culture assessment tool and an educational curriculum. Safety culture is a robust predictor of occupational injuries and organizational outcomes like burnout, job satisfaction, and engagement. By measuring safety climate, fire and rescue departments can know where they stand and how they can improve things like injuries and burnout while maintaining morale and job satisfaction.

To date, over 500 fire departments and 70,000 firefighters in all 50 states have assessed with FOCUS through four waves of the survey. Now, funding for the CANVAS project will continue FOCUS 3.0 assessment, with emphasis on bringing the survey to more combination and volunteer departments.

Recent analysis of FOCUS beta-test data led by FIRST Center doctoral graduate Dr. Ashley Geczik revealed significant differences in management commitment to safety by organization type, with volunteer and combination departments showing higher scores than their career counterparts. However, as the survey left its beta-test stage and became open to any and all fire departments across the country, volunteer and combination departments did not participate as often as career. The CANVAS project intends to increase participation of combination and volunteer departments so that their positive safety climate may be more deeply understood. Together, the team will help amplify their needs by providing them with important data that can help them advocate for staffing, apparatus, gear, and behavioral health resources.

After assessing, departments have the opportunity to participate in Online FOCUS Culture Camps, developed in collaboration with Drexel’s Instructional Design and Multimedia Services team. This curriculum teaches labor-management teams about safety culture, and their newfound competencies will be assessed through observed teach backs of their data in preparation for presentations to department membership and budget negotiations with local government stakeholders.

With safety climate data, departments can reveal gaps in key metrics related to leadership communication, work engagement, and mental health. Departments of all sizes have used their FOCUS data and Culture Camp training to acquire gear, apparatus, staffing, and behavioral health resources.

Survey administration is led by FIRST Center associate director Alexandra Fisher, MPH, CHES, in collaboration with FIRST Center affiliate faculty in industrial and organizational psychology: Joseph Allen, PhD, professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of Utah Health; Jin Lee, PhD, associate professor of psychological sciences at Kansas State University; and Christian Resick, PhD, associate professor of management and organizational behavior at the Drexel University LeBow College of Business.

FIRST is proud to continue its partnership with the Fire Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA), whose executive director and board members are experienced FOCUS Culture Camps cofacilitators, bringing real-world solutions to fire and rescue departments.

Does YOUR department want to lead with data? Sign up for the FOCUS survey today!

About the FIRST Center
The Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST) is a research, education, and practice enterprise at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, organized to support the United States fire and rescue service through objective data collection and analysis. FIRST is led by Dr. Jennifer Taylor, an expert in injury prevention, healthcare quality improvement, and occupational safety. FIRST projects include: organizational safety climate assessment, nonfatal injury data system development, stress and violence in fire-based EMS responders, mental health concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, policy research and practice, and workforce development and work environment in the fire and rescue service. FIRST uses federal funding to make sure research findings are freely downloadable for the fire service and the public. Please follow FIRST on Facebook and Twitter.

For more information, please contact Victoria Gallogly, FIRST Center outreach and communication manager, at vhg25@drexel.edu.