Goals & Needs

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The FIRE Foundry is a workforce development program which provides job training and skills development for underserved, underrepresented, and underfunded community members in Marin County and the surrounding Bay Area in their pursuit of a fire or fire adjacent career. The FIRE Foundry is a career pathway organization that consists of four programs (Work Experience, Professional Development, Support Services and Education) designed to support young adults reduce barriers toward a sustainable wage career. The FIRE Foundry began it's first year-long cohort of recruits in January 2022. 

 

A typical day in the life of a fellow could include: organizing recruit trainings (reaching out to potential trainers, sharing training schedules and calendars with recruits and project partners, attending project partner meetings and posting for FIRE Foundry on social media platforms) or it could be leading a specific education projects (examples would include: overseeing recruits as they create trifolds for community members, tabling events in the community to spread awareness of the program or going door to door with recruits to educate the community on the impacts of fire and the importance of prevention).

 

The impact of wildfires on California communities have grown dramatically over the past decade. Marin County with large populations in the wildland urban interface (WUI) face increasing risks with the drying climate of California. Within Marin County, all communities are classified as facing at least “moderate risk” of fire, a significant number are classified as at “high” risk, and several are classified as at “very high” risk.  This unprecedented growth in wildfire risk requires a similar growth in available fire professionals. 

 

4) Fellows will help promote Grizzley Corp values by creating meaningful community education events as well as by fostering opportunities for the FIRE foundry recruits to do skill building trainings that will help them propel into a career in the fire service.

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Capacity Building Projects

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1 )Public outreach coordination (Increase community awareness of fire services and prevention): The GrizzlyCorps Fellow will work with Marin County F.I.R.E. Foundry Program participants to engage communities in Marin County and deliver culturally competent public education materials and interventions. They will work with Foundry recruits to educate and engage Marin County communities to encourage fire preparedness and awareness. The Fellow will help mentor recruits in public engagement, oversee educational materials (social media, tri-folds, etc) and track impact (number of community members contacted, etc).  Increasing fire awareness reduces the impact of fires in the community and the strain on resources to combat them. It also helps build public engagement and community building skills with the FIRE Foundry recruits.

 

2)Training and education coordinator: the GrizzlyCorps fellow  will help coordinate and organize educational and training opportunities for the FIRE Foundry recruits. The Fellow will coordinate not only hands-on skill building trainings, but also soft skills trainings such as mock interview trainings. Fellow will help coordinate trainings and workshops for recruits (contacting trainers, planning agendas, coordinating calendars, sending emails, intentionally planning trainings to build skills, posting pictures after trainings on social media) Fellow will track trainings and attendees and do follow up surveys to recruits and trainers. Intentional trainings help the recruits not only prepare for traditional next steps into the fire service (Fire Academy, seasonal positions, etc), but also hopefully create career pathways by building both soft and hard skills.

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Organizational & Community Highlights

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Working for the FIRE Foundry with Marin County Fire Department is engaging, rewarding and dynamic. The FIRE Foundry is an organization that is built around 4 key programs (Education, Work Experience, Support Services and Professional Development) as well as supported by key community partners. With that the GrizzlyCorps fellow will not only be working along side MCFD staff and firefighters, they will also be working with coordinators from the work and education programs (Conservation Corps North Bay and College of Marin). All FIRE Foundry program partner staff are invested in the recruits and continuously assessing program strengths and areas to improve.

 

Although the main area that the fellow ill be working is Marin County Fire Department headquarters in Woodacre, Ca- they may also work from the FIRE Foundry headquarters in San Rafael. Both space can be quiet in moment, then bustling with people and noise the next.