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National Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment and Retention

About

The IAFC National Volunteer Firefighter Geospatial Recruitment and Retention Toolkit was developed under support from FEMA using the SAFER grant, and is designed to help address the national shortage of firefighters. This toolkit is a two-part tool.

The first part helps fire departments address staffing crises and retain their current volunteer and career firefighters. By taking a Talent Accelerator self-assessment, you can evaluate your department against a workforce development maturity model. The maturity model will rank your fire department in four categories: Leadership, Workforce, Infrastructure, and Experience. This provides you with suggestions on how to retain your current staff.

The second part of the toolkit is focused on recruitment. By taking the National Volunteer Firefighter Survey, you can compare your fire department to those in your state and others nationwide. The survey collects demographic information, including income levels, education levels, the language spoken at home, and access to transportation. With those demographics and percentages provided, it offers a breakdown of your community, helping you target your best recruitment locations and events to attend.

Visit our Recruitment and Retention Toolkit to begin recruiting for your fire department. If you would like a one-on-one demonstration of the toolkit, please email us at: ws@iafc.org to request an in-person or virtual walkthrough.

Recruitment and Retention Tookit

Upcoming Events

Questions?

Contact:
IAFC Workforce Solutions Department
ws@iafc.org

Current Training & Certification Programs

Mentoring Certification Program: Helping Members Find Their Spark Through Mentoring

Knowledge transfer remains one of the significant challenges facing fire departments today. This one-day course provides you with proven framework to capture that knowledge and pass it to the next generation through an effective mentoring program. You'll learn to assess your department's readiness for mentoring, design programs that match your organizational culture, and establish meaningful mentor-mentee partnerships. The course covers common obstacles that cause mentoring programs to fail and provides practical solutions for overcoming them. This certification provides the framework to build a lasting mentoring program that strengthens your department's knowledge base and operational effectiveness.

November 8, 2025
Leesburg, VA

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Recruitment and Retention Coordinator Certification

Strengthen your department's recruitment and retention efforts with our one-day Recruitment and Retention Coordinator Certification course that gives you proven strategies to build and maintain a strong volunteer team. This hands-on training tackles real challenges like finding qualified candidates, overcoming common objections, and keeping your best people engaged through practical exercises, role-playing scenarios, and group problem-solving that you can immediately apply in your department. You'll leave with a complete action plan, effective interview techniques, marketing strategies that work, and the confidence to present compelling cases to leadership for support and resources. Whether you're struggling to attract new volunteers, need fresh ideas to boost retention, or want to professionalize your approach to building membership, this free certification provides the tools and expertise to create measurable improvements that strengthen your team and better serve your community. Discover how the right strategies can help you build the committed, reliable volunteer force your department needs to thrive.

Building Collaborative Teams

Strong teams don't happen by accident, and learning to build them is a skill that transforms both individual careers and entire departments. This one-day course equips participants with the tools to create environments where people genuinely want to work together and support each other's success. You'll develop the ability to turn diverse personalities and conflicting perspectives into unified, high-performing teams that accomplish more than the sum of their parts. Participants gain confidence in facilitating difficult conversations, resolving conflicts before they escalate, and building the trust that makes teamwork feel natural rather than forced. The skills learned in this program translate into improved job satisfaction, reduced workplace tension, and more effective emergency responses when coordination and communication matter most. You'll leave with practical techniques for creating psychological safety, establishing clear expectations, and maintaining team cohesion even during high-stress situations. The result is stronger working relationships, enhanced department culture, and the personal satisfaction that comes from leading teams that inspire genuine pride among their members.