Rural county program preps students for first responder careers

Key Takeaways

Okeechobee County, Fla.’s public safety career programs are giving young people the tools to jumpstart their careers and helping address the county’s workforce shortages in fire rescue, dispatch and law enforcement. 

The Fire Academy and 911 Dispatch courses are both part of the school system’s career and technical education offerings and function as any other elective course would during the school day. The 911 Dispatch course, which is taught by dispatchers, provides real-world simulation-based training, and the Public Safety Cadet Program, which is run by the Sheriff’s Office, occurs after school, according to Denise Whitehead, the county’s community services and public information officer.

“It’s giving [students] a lot more tools before they have to make that jump into the career world,” she said. “And it’s really been quite promising.”

Over the course of two years, Fire Academy students learn the basics — such as how to put on bunker gear, tie knots and pull a fire hose — participate in live drills and even attend ride-alongs with firefighters, according to Earl Wooten, Okeechobee County’s fire chief. 

Braxton Lewis, a former Fire Academy participant, now serves as a firefighter emergency medical technician (EMT). The Fire Academy helped lay the foundation for his future; prior to participating in the course, Lewis wasn’t sure what he wanted to do as a career, he said. Once he started the training, firefighting just felt right, he noted. 

“As we were learning the material and getting hands-on with the equipment, I definitely realized that this is what I wanted to do,” Lewis said. “… The Fire Academy is a nice introduction into what to expect, and I feel like that’s really important in high school, to show them what they’re getting into before they go [into the field].” 

Implementing career training in high schools allows teens to solidify whether they want to pursue a career in public safety, which ultimately saves both them and the departments time and resources that would be spent if they went straight into the workforce and then determined it wasn’t something they were interested in, Whitehead noted. Even students who don’t end up pursuing a career in 911 dispatch, firefighting or law enforcement have benefited from the courses, she added. 

“We have kids that reported saying the only reason they were going to school was because that class was available to them, and it was something they could connect with,” Whitehead said. “And what a better testament [to its success], that even if they don’t end up in the profession, they graduated high school because they found a connection that worked for them.

“I don’t want to minimize the fact that not every kid is going to become a firefighter, because we definitely want this program to be that pipeline, but I think that we realized there were so many more benefits on top of what we hoped. It’s just been a phenomenal program.”

One young woman who participated in the first Fire Academy cohort exemplified that, Whitehead said. She initially struggled with the physical aspects of the course but worked one-on-one with the instructors until she was able to pull a 150-pound dummy across the field, which she was proud of and found rewarding, according to Whitehead.

“It showed her that she was capable of doing something that if she hadn’t had this class, I don’t think she would have even tried to go for,” Whitehead said. “So, it’s definitely giving them so many more opportunities, so many more chances to see what’s there, and the encouragement that they need to stick with it.”

Whitehead attributes the public safety career programming’s success to relationship-building, which she said is particularly key in rural communities. 

“Those relationships are what makes a difference when opportunities come,” Whitehead said. “Because an opportunity might come my way and I say, ‘Oh, this might not be perfect for me, but I know Earl’s been looking for this, because we had that chat last week,’ so it’s a lot easier to make those connections when those relationships are already built and in place.”

The Education Foundation of Okeechobee, a local nonprofit, identified a grant opportunity for a resiliency project, and its executive director Alaina Barron reached out to the county’s public safety services to collaborate on building what ended up becoming the public safety career programming, according to Whitehead. 

“Funding happened to come available at a time when our public safety departments really needed that boost of employees coming through the pipeline,” Whitehead said. “And we identified that we can’t just do our best to recruit, but we actually need a pipeline that puts candidates in the right place at the right time with the right qualifications to make something happen.”

Okeechobee County has a population of less than 40,000 people and only one incorporated municipality. Building a stronger career pipeline has helped create more local opportunity for young people, Wooten said. 

“Being a rural community, it’s just great to have them here locally and not have to go away to find that employment and find that opportunity,” Wooten said. “It’s been really neat.”