First Responders Resiliency, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to training first responders to cope with the emotional trauma of their job, brought their first training conference to a close in Sonoma, CA at Westerbeke Ranch earlier this week. The conference started on June 29th and ended on July 1st.
Participants at the conference were overwhelmingly happy with the training, the facilities, the extracurricular activities, and everything else, with the conference receiving a 100% satisfaction rating in the survey conducted after the conference ended. Overall, a success by any measure.
Improving personal and professional life of emergency personnel
First Responders Resiliency, Inc. addresses every component of the issues affecting first responders with their unique, multi-faceted approach of implementing education, skills, techniques and tools that have profound impacts on stress reduction and management, thus improving the professional and personal lives of those that serve. The organisation implements and leverages everything in their approach, from techniques used by the Navy SEALS, to the most recent research provided by neuroscientists and elite athletes alike.
Susan Farren, a founder of First Responders Resiliency, Inc., states, “We were delighted to launch our initial first responders resiliency training conference this week. The feedback from the participants was incredibly gratifying in so many ways, and we are now looking forward to the launch of a sustainable training curriculum that can be done on-site in other parts of North America. That training curriculum had its genesis at this conference, so we’re very happy everything went so smoothly, and the response from the first responders there was so enthusiastic. And, everyone had a great time, too!
| We will now offer this training to first responders of all kinds at their facility, with a small group of trainers that are able to travel nationwide" |
Providing training throughout US and Canada
“We will now offer this training to first responders of all kinds at their facility, with a small group of trainers that are able to travel nationwide (and throughout Canada as well), and thereby take this important training right to the people that need it. These first responders can attend near where they live and work in order to have all their immediate resiliency training needs met, and we will help them balance their professional lives and their personal lives. So, we’re obviously thrilled about that.
“We just started to talk about how to help first responders just six months ago, and the response from the first responder community, whether it’s police, firefighters, paramedics or anyone else, has been overwhelming. There is a massive need for this in this country – the very people who help others in their time of need have been overlooked in some ways and gone without help themselves for far too long. These are the people that our society counts on, and yet, what they do leaves deep scars on them that need intense healing.”
Discussing public safety
She noted that all of the presenters and instructors for each of the training conferences, no matter where those are held, is a current or former first responder, like herself, and therefore is intimately familiar with the emotional struggles of emergency personnel.
Presenters during the three days included:
Susan Farren, Jeff Dill, Ric Jorge, Patrick Harig, Tod Ceruti and Gary McCalla.
Ms, Farren added, “We had speakers from all over the nation gathered together at this conference to talk about every area of public safety, and what we can do to ensure each other’s health in our respective industries.”