Departments and students ask about completely different things, so the questions below are split into two sections. Some answers vary by state or by individual department, and we have said so where that is the case.
Skip ahead to departments and schools or students and parents.
Written for chiefs, training officers, and the administrators who have to approve a visit.
There is no catch, because there is nothing to sell. SHIELD has no paid staff, no product, and no commission arrangement with anyone. The work is done by volunteers, so there is no cost to pass on.
You will not receive an invoice later, and there is no paid tier to upgrade to.
No. We arrange for your department to meet interested students, and that is all. Applications, background checks, medical forms, and every membership decision stay with you and work exactly as they do now.
Nothing we do should replace any part of your existing process.
No. We have no sponsor, no parent organization, and no financial relationship with any agency or supplier. Departments cannot pay us for preferential treatment.
We also do not endorse or officially link to individual departments. Students are directed to whichever program is closest to them.
No. We ask a school whether they will host a visit, and that is the limit of what we say on your behalf. We do not describe your requirements, make claims about your program, or explain how you operate.
Anything specific gets passed to your point of contact.
Reach into the schools you do not already have a relationship with. Most departments get invited to one building, usually because someone on the roster knows someone there.
The rest of the district is what takes administrative legwork to open up, and that is the part we do.
You and the district do. These vary widely between districts and we have no standing to satisfy them for you.
What we do is find out what a particular district requires and tell you before you agree to a date, so nothing surprises you the week of the visit.
We approach other schools and other districts in your area, and nothing is required from you in the meantime.
We will not forward you each rejection as it arrives. We come back when we have a school that has agreed, or when we have run out of options worth trying and owe you that answer.
Less than from an adult volunteer, and that is normal rather than a discipline problem. Juniors have coursework, exams, sports seasons, and often jobs.
The programs that work tend to be explicit about this early: what drill attendance is actually required, what happens during exam periods, and who a student should tell when their schedule changes. Saying plainly that schoolwork comes first costs a department nothing and removes the reason most juniors give for not speaking up.
The common failure is not a student who is too busy. It is a student who quietly disappears because nobody told them it was acceptable to say they were struggling.
That is fine. There is no agreement to end and nothing to cancel. Tell us the visit was not worth your crew's time and we will stop contacting you about it.
Only with the school arranging your visit, and only after you have agreed to that visit. We do not publish, sell, or pass department contact details to anyone else.
High school students, working with the departments and schools willing to take part.
We would rather state that directly than write in an anonymous organizational voice, because it explains what we are and are not. We are effective at reaching students and persistent about contacting districts. We are not a staffing agency, a training provider, or an authority on your department's policies.
Written for someone deciding whether to walk into a station, and for the parent who would be driving them there.
No, and this is the thing people most often get wrong. SHIELD does not run any junior program and cannot get you a place in one. You join the department directly, and they decide.
What we can do is tell you which departments near you accept junior members and who to contact there.
Usually between 14 and 16 for a fire junior program, and around 16 for youth EMS. Cadet and explorer posts set their own limits.
This varies by state and by department, so the department itself is the only reliable source.
Junior members do not do interior firefighting, and youth EMS members do not ride every call. The full explanation, including what nobody can guarantee, is on the Why Volunteer page.
Departments actively try to prevent it. Calls are screened before a youth member rides, and most programs deliberately keep juniors away from anything likely to be distressing.
It would be wrong to promise it can never happen. Emergency scenes are unpredictable, and how carefully this is handled differs from one department to another. Ask the department you are considering how they screen calls for juniors and what support exists afterward if a call goes badly. A well-run program will have a clear answer ready.
One weeknight a week for drill, usually two to three hours. That is the part to treat as fixed.
Everything beyond it varies. Station work such as equipment checks and cleaning up after a call might add an hour or two, as often as you want it to. Calls differ enormously between departments and according to what you are cleared for, so some juniors run several a week and others almost none. Certification courses arrive in bursts, spread over a series of evenings or weekends.
Realistically, expect one evening a week as the floor and as much beyond that as you choose to take on. Ask the department what they actually require of juniors before you join, because the required minimum and the available maximum are very different numbers.
Tell them, and tell them early. This is routine and departments deal with it constantly.
Exam weeks, a sports season starting, a job, a difficult term, or a family situation are all normal reasons to need less for a while. Most programs will reduce what they expect, move you to drill-only for a period, or pause you entirely and pick things up when you are ready.
What causes problems is silence. A department cannot work around something nobody told them about, and a junior who simply stops appearing is far harder to bring back than one who said in advance that they needed a few weeks.
Often yes, but raise it with the department before you commit rather than afterward.
Departments know they are taking on students, and most build their junior programs around that. Many will work around a sports season or an exam period, scale back what they expect of you for a few weeks, or tell you honestly that this term is the wrong time to start and to come back next year.
Tell them in your first conversation what your week actually looks like: when your season runs, what your course load is, and whether you have a job. They have had that conversation with plenty of students before you, and they would far rather plan around it than be surprised by it.
No to both. Training assumes you are starting from nothing, and junior roles are support roles. A few specific tasks have basic physical requirements, which the department will explain.
Usually not. Departments normally provide the gear and the training, since they are the ones who need you trained.
Some volunteer companies charge nominal membership dues, and a few ask you to buy one or two personal items. Ask about it in your first conversation so nothing surprises you later.
If cost is a genuine obstacle for your family, say so rather than walking away. Many departments have a way around it, and none of them want money to be the reason a willing student does not join.
Yes, without exception. Every junior program requires written consent from a parent or guardian, and most will want to meet them.
Parents are welcome to visit the station and ask their own questions before signing anything.
It should not, and a well-run department will not let it. Most programs restrict activity during school hours and set curfews on school nights, and plenty go further by asking about your grades or telling juniors to stand down during exam weeks.
This is not politeness on their part. A department has no interest in recruiting somebody whose schoolwork collapses, because that student does not make it to 18 and into full membership. Your education is the thing they are trying to protect.
If a program seems unconcerned about your academics, treat that as a warning sign about the program rather than as a sign you have found a relaxed one.
Talk to the department about it rather than simply stopping. That is the whole answer, and it matters more than most students expect.
Junior programs have a limited number of places, and by that point the department has put real training time into you. If the commitment is not working, tell your officer or the person who runs the junior program. They may be able to reduce what you take on, pause you for a season, or agree with you that it is not the right fit.
They have had this conversation before and will not be offended by it. What they cannot work with is somebody who quietly stops appearing while still holding a place another student could have used.
Search neighboring towns and your county, not only your own municipality, since squads often cover several at once.
If you still find nothing, tell us where you are and we will look properly before you write it off.
If your question is not here, send it to us. Questions that come up more than once end up on this page.
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