A diversity plan for the Nashville Fire Department

¶ … Recruiting Minorities into Fire Department

A Diversity Plan for the Nashville Fire Department

The major goal of this plan is to increase the application of minority groups in the Nashville Fire Department. There are three specific objectives towards this goal, namely:

To identify problems and barriers to the recruitment of minorities into the fire department,

To develop strategies to address these problems

To develop programs and other benefits to retain minority employees within the fire department.

Despite efforts to diversify its workforce, the Nashville Fire Department still encounters problems with recruiting and retaining sexual and racial minority applicants. This proposal a request for funding to study the issues faced by minority firefighter applicants with the Nashville Fire Department. This proposal also includes a request to fund programs that aim to address these issues and thereby increase racial and gender diversity within the Nashville Fire Department.

Introduction

The recruitment and retention of minority applicants in Nashville's fire service is an important element in ensuring a city's diverse workforce. Nashville has actively promoted diversity in various ways among its own workforce and within the city's private sector. Unfortunately, the work climate is vastly in the Nashville Fire Department is vastly different from the most of the city's other working environments. As a result, ensuring a diverse workforce within the Nashville Fire Department presents special challenges.

For this proposal, "minority" applicants are applicants who are of African-American, Hispanic, Asian or American Indian descent, groups who were traditionally marginalized due to their skin color. In addition, this proposal will also consider issues facing women and gay applicants, groups that have faced discrimination due to their gender or sexual orientation.

Though there are no figures on the number of minority employees with the Nashville Fire Department, research shows that in general, the field of firefighting in the United States remains largely an enclave of Caucasian men. A survey conducted in 2001, for example, shows that there were only 97 female firefighters in the entire state of Tennessee. Half of that number worked with departments in Memphis and Chattanooga. Only two out of 20 departments have female fire chiefs.

This proposal will design a research program examine the dearth of minority applicants and employees within the Nashville Fire Department, study how current recruitment practices fail to meet their needs and make create a plan to address these concerns. This is geared towards making the Nashville Fire Departments more effective in addressing the needs of the community as a whole.

Budget

This proposal seeks a total of $50,000 for the project's first phase, to assess and begin to address the workplace issues and needs of Nashville's minority firefighters. This figure is based on the budget of the successful diversity program developed and implemented by the Seattle-King County Fire Department.

Since the Diversity Team will be composed of current city employees, there will be no need to hire outside consultant to make the necessary assessments and recommendations. Instead, the funds will be used to cover research expenses, such as the cost of hiring a part-time employee to assist in gathering and collating data. This figure also includes supplies, traveling expenses, the preparation of questionnaires and other survey material, mailing fees and other indirect costs.

The bulk of the amount, however, will be used to implement recommended initial changes in test departments, as permitted within the limitations of the budget.

This could range from conducting more recruitment events, developing a cadet training program or building additional sleeping facilities where needed.

Appendices

The following graphic shows the tasks and timeline of the proposed Nashville Fire Department's Diversity Team.