RescueDigest GOTW: Brotherhood

By focusing on a particular goal for a week straight and providing some resources to get you started, RescueDigest is here to help make your world a little but easier and to help you help others. Some say family, some say camaraderie, some call it esprit-de-corps, we call it brotherhood. Call it what you want, it’s that special spirit that is a combination of friendship, family and fraternity among those of us that share the bond of emergency services. Brotherhood is that special combination of pride, honor, duty, dedication, and sacrifice that are essential for any emergency responders to have if they are to ever fully realize their potential. Sadly some people, and some entire services, find that essential spirit lacking. Since, at its core, (we believe) brotherhood is the key to intrinsic motivation, pride and professional satisfaction; Let’s foster brotherhood in your service!

This goal of the weak is part of a month-long series. You can read our editorial on brotherhood, why we think it’s important, and why we think it needs to be promoted RIGHT HERE. What we’ll add here is that RescueDigest exists to promote great ideas across different branches of emergency services which is why we see a great opportunity to take the best aspects of the Brotherhood of the Fire Service and the Brotherhood of Law Enforcement and apply them to the rest of emergency services.

We selected some of the best resources on explaining and promoting brotherhood from the fire service and law enforcement. While we have them divided up into sections below, we don’t want you to think that means the firefighters should go to their section and the cops should go to theirs. You guys should already know all that! The idea here is to cross pollinate the best ideas. No one service has a trademark on brotherhood.

One more thing that we’ve explained in some of the other posts, and is even covered in some of the resources below, is that the phrase “brotherhood” refers to members of the emergency services family of all genders. Brothers and sisters, black-and-white, career and volunteer, we have consciously chosen to use one single phrase “brotherhood” to emphasize that this phrase should be inclusive and unifying, not exclusive and compartmentalizing.

So wether you’re looking to boost that brotherhood spirit for yourself, or you’re trying to assist a fellow responder who seems to have lost the spirit, or you want to help that millennial who may never have known the meaning of brotherhood, check out the RescueDigest tips for fostering that essential spirit of brotherhood.

As with all of our #GOTW reminders, we’re going to be trying these right along with you!

Brotherhood From the Fire Service

• Pride and Ownership: Rick Lasky (If need be, change the word “Firefighter” to your profession, but START HERE!)
• What is the Brotherhood Among Firefighters? | The Fire Critic
• Owning the Job. Part I – Self Evaluation | The Fire Critic
• Fire Service Brotherhood – Fire Engineering
• Brotherhood & Camaraderie – Family in the Fire Service | Journey To Firefighter
• Progressive Traditions……Keeping The Fire Service Effective In The 21st Century: The Brotherhood

Brotherhood From Law Enforcement

• The ‘Brotherhood’ of Law Enforcement – Officer.com (Concerning Brotherhood vs Sisterhood)
• Police Brotherhood: Where is it? – Public Tips and Advice (Concerning Rookies and Millennials)
• Police Brotherhood Quotes (Says it all)
• Police brotherhood is a bond that is always there | Deseret News (On the loss of Brothers)

Brotherhood Among Volunteers

• VFDs — Small Budget, Big Pride | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural
• Brotherhood – Tiger Schmittendorf

Brotherhood Across ALL EMERGENCY SERVICES

• How brotherhood helped me save 2 from fire (Concerns the brotherhood BETWEEN Fire and Police)
• EMS, Firefighters, Police, Medical Personnel and Military
• Brotherhood – Come Home Soon – Fire Engineering Training Community