By JoEllen Kelly

In the summer of 2006, National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Executive Director Ron Siarnicki and the Everyone Goes Home®Life Safety Initiatives (LSI) Team, attended a meeting in San Diego of the National Wildland Coordinating Group to look at the leadership material the NWCG had developed for the wildland community. The LSI Team crafted a proposal to develop a course for the structural firefighter based on the NWCG model. Shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Tony McDowell, company officers' section of the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association, contacted the LSI Team seeking help to develop a leadership course that would embody the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives. The VFCA was invited to collaborate with the LSI Team in the development of a leadership program that would include relevant aspects of the NWCG model and embody the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives. In order to fully understand the NWCG L-380 Leadership sequence, the Everyone Goes Home® Program sent two safety officers, one from Montgomery County Fire Rescue Service and the other from the Virginia Beach Fire Department, to the San Diego Fire Department to participate an L-380 course being conducted there. The two officers reported the experience as life-changing in terms of what they learned and what they came to believe about the linkage between firefighter safety and leadership.

One of those officers, Captain Ron Morton from Virginia Beach, went back to his professional association, the VFCA and urged them to move forward with the Virginia Academy. It was decided that a pilot would be developed and offered during the summer of 2007 in Richmond. Along with the two major developing agencies, the Everyone Goes Home® program and the VFCA, the Virginia Department of Fire Programs contributed staff and a statewide distribution network for marketing the program.

The pilot was presented in June (2007) at the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Business, to thirty students from across the state of Virginia and five others who had seen the course advertised on the VFCA website and applied. Over one hundred students applied for the course. By any measure, the Safety Through Leadership was a phenomenal success.

Over the next year, FLSI course developers carefully evaluated the material from Virginia with an eye toward developing a national curriculum. While most of the format of the VFCA was retained (including material from the L-380 course) new material was developed and added to the national model curriculum. A call was put out in the winter of 2008 for thirty students to come to the National Fire Academy. Quickly, all the seats were spoken for, including the return of three who had attended the Virginia pilot. Two weeks ago, the Train-the-Trainer commenced on the beautiful campus of the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md.

Safety Through Leadership focuses on the company officer and his or her attitude toward the safety of firefighters within their span of authority. It is a role-play based curriculum which begins with several cooperative exercises, including the naming of the fire department under which all activities will proceed for the duration of the training program. Five modules regarding safety and leadership were presented to the students, ranging from effective supervisory practices to threat and error management (utilizing the model of crew resource management). The modules are meant to make the program both easy to deliver (one a month, for example) and scalable to the particular audience. A series of excellent video role-plays were developed to reinforce discussions. The central goal of the Safety Through Leadership program (based on the foundation of L-380) is to create an emotional impact within company officers so they are encouraged to reflect on their own leadership styles and create changes always with a mindset toward safety. This sounds easy enough, but it is a process through which people must safely guided.

Safety Through Leadership is not meant to replace other leadership programs that may be in place. Rather, it is a value-added approach that requires company officers and other supervisors to set the example of safety in every behavior they model for the firefighters they supervise. This means that safety and leadership are linked not only on the fireground (where we would expect it) but also in training and in the long hours of "everyday living" in the station. The Train-the-Trainer, therefore, spent a good deal of time reviewing an reinforcing the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives so that the trainers will become living ambassadors for Everyone Goes Home®.

Safety Through Leadership is a program appropriate at both the station-level and to broader audiences such as regional or state training opportunities. It can be delivered as it was originally envisioned by the Virginia Fire Officers as a four day academy, or it can be sequentially delivered via the modules. The bottom line is that company officers hold the key to modeling a safety attitude and for doing everything they can to make sure their firefighters go home safe after every call. This is a huge burden and responsibility. The Safety Through Leadership program is one way this burden can be lightened, and this responsibility wholeheartedly endorsed.

If you would like more information about Safety Through Leadership, please contact JoEllen Kelly at 16FLSI@comcast.net, or the Everyone Goes Home® program directly via the website at www.everyonegoeshome.com