We are building grant under the SAFER Program. The read below has great information and ideas once/if we receive the grant.

Feb. 18--NEWBERRY -- Fire Chief Keith Minick and Captain Gene Shealy with the Newberry Fire Department updated City Council on their progress with recruitment and retention last week.

Last year, the fire department received a $247,484 SAFER grant, which stands for Staffing for Adequate Fire Emergency Response, to increase recruitment and retention within the department, but also to hire a Recruitment and Retention Coordinator, which was tasked to Shealy.

"Captain Shealy took a big plunge to do this," Minick said.

Shealy told council there has been a decrease in volunteer firefighters across the nation, which made his efforts not only a county problem, but a nation problem.

In the city, Shealy said they have 21 paid firefighters, but only 10 volunteer.

Coming into the position, Shealy said he set several goals:

-- A quick application process to keep volunteers from losing interest

-- To develop a participation standard to ensure that volunteers knew what was expected of them

-- To retain current members and how to make it easier on them so they'll help train future members

-- To diversify the department

-- Provide multi-agency training

-- Continue a strong Explorer program

Shealy said their application process now takes less than a week and they are able to provide field agility tests for volunteers to test their skills plus let them know their limitations and what they're about to get into.

Shealy said the department has implemented a 10 hour per month participation standard that includes five hours of training and five hours of staff activity, which can include fire calls, public education or public events.

To recruit, Shealy said they have advertised diligently and he found one of the best ways to do that was to create business cards. Pizza Hut, Sonic and Arbys have agreed to give out recruitment information for the department as well, Shealy said.

To develop multi-agency training, Shealy said they have developed monthly county wide training to get agencies working together, which has led to better relationships.

The Newberry County Career Center also has what Shealy called a CTC program which is a certification program for firefighters.

"That's a program that is benefiting all of Newberry County," Shealy said.

There are currently four students representing all areas of the county, he said.

Results

Over the last six months, Shealy said they have recruited seven new volunteers within the city of Newberry, which amounts to a 70 percent increase.

"We have sent several recruits into Newberry County," Shealy said.

Since implementing the program last year, Shealy said they have retained 90 percent of the members they had when the program began.

Shealy said they have created diversity within the department and now have mixed gender and race in the volunteer core, which was something they did not have six months ago.

One of their newest volunteers is bilingual and will be of great help with the Spanish-speaking members of the community.

The Explorer program, which is for those ages 14 to 21 interested in obtaining firefighter certification, is booming, Shealy said with more than 20 members now.

Shealy said he is most proud of improving the department's training hours from 120 hours to over 495 hours.

"That's a 300 percent increase in training for our volunteers over a total of six months," Shealy said.

The department went from five hours per month per volunteer to 12 hours per month per volunteer.

"Training our volunteers and members is very significant to retention," Shealy said. "If we don't train early, they don't feel like they can help or participate so that's a huge part of what I'm doing."