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| Fire Corps evaluation including a set of surveys proves their volunteer program successful |
Overall, the evaluation found that Fire Corps teams are helping departments in a variety of ways, that volunteers find their time spent with Fire Corps is rewarding and that many departments began using citizen volunteers because of the Fire Corps program.
Fire Corps launched in December 2004 with the mission to increase the capacity of volunteer, career, and combination departments through the use of citizen volunteers in non-emergency roles. It has grown to encompass over 1,040 registered local programs with more than 15,460 non-operational volunteers. A new evaluation of Fire Corps conducted by an independent, external research firm has revealed that Fire Corps is indeed achieving its mission and accomplishing its goals.
The evaluation included a set of surveys administered to Fire Corps program coordinators, citizen volunteers and State Advocates. The questions sought to measure the success of Fire Corps, its performance, and the results of efforts to promote and sustain the Fire Corps model of volunteer support. Overall, the evaluation found that Fire Corps teams are helping departments in a variety of ways, that volunteers find their time spent with Fire Corps is rewarding and that many departments began using citizen volunteers because of the Fire Corps program.
“When Fire Corps launched five and a half years ago, we knew it had a great deal of potential to help fire departments that were struggling to meet the increasing needs of their communities,” said Fire Corps Director Sarah Lee. “We are thrilled to receive such positive results from this external evaluation, and also to learn of areas that can be improved upon moving forward.”
The information gathered from the evaluation will help inform the national office as to what is working and not working with the program as well as guide the future direction for the program and the development of new tools and resources.
