IAFC 150 anniversary logo

National Workforce Solutions

WFYF_New Banner

Guide for Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Department

The Guide for Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Department offers ways you can increase the levels of diversity, inclusiveness, and equity in eight specific areas of your department or organization. The guide is meant to be a usable, practical tool that can start discussions in your department or organization. It is a document that you can sit down with and work through using the worksheets and checklists provided in the appendix.

Within each section, the guide provides a brief description of the topic area, a list of some of the expected benefits of making your department or organization more diverse or inclusive, “before” and “after” scenarios to help you understand those benefits more clearly, and implementation tips. The appendix contains a checklist for each section as well as some additional tools. The resources section suggests other materials you might find useful in creating or refining some of the documents or processes addressed in the guide.

This document was created by the National Workforce Solutions FEMA SAFER grant and the Council for Future Volunteer Firefighters.

download the guide (PDF)

Request a copy of the guide

Access guide resources

Resources

About

The National Workforce Solutions is an initiative to assist combination and volunteer fire departments with the means to improve their ability to recruit, retain, and manage a diverse and inclusive workforce. The program has created and curated a variety of resources for combination and volunteer fire departments across the country. More about National WS

VWS is proud to partner with the IAFC’s Volunteer and Combination Officers Section (VCOS). Make sure to check out all the wonderful VCOS resources at VCOS.org.

Related
Training & Events

Recruitment & Retention Coordinator Certification Training

  • Dates: 27 – 28 Apr, 2024
  • Location: Moscow, ID

Our Recruitment & Retention Coordinator certification course gives students the skills necessary to bring in and keep quality volunteers. Students will come away with a plan, specific to your department to recruit and retain members. This class is SAFER funded which means not only is it free, but we will reimburse your travel expenses to attend within the IAFC travel policy guidelines. 

Come to this class to hone the skills you need to recruit and retain quality members, including:

  • The “membership lifecycle”
  • “Selling” your department
  • Marketing for recruitment
  • Interacting with the public
  • Interviewing
  • Working with your leaders

Come away with a plan, specific to your department, to bring in and retain quality members.

For further information or to register, contact Patrick Kidd at pkidd@iafc.org

You are not logged in.