Endeavor Health has partnered with the Romeoville Fire Academy through Endeavor Health’s Community Investment Fund (CIF).
The Romeoville Fire Academy provides firefighter and emergency medical technician (EMT) training for about 2,000 students each year.
“We teach entry level fire academy, EMT, we also teach technical rescue training, hazardous materials training, water rescue,” said Mike Pemble, deputy chief and executive academy director. “You name it. If it’s something someone would dial 911 for, we probably teach students in that discipline.
The academy’s partnership with Endeavor Health has expanded outreach to and scholarships for members of underserved communities, internships and financial support to reduce cost barriers for students. Together, we’re helping launch new careers.
“Endeavor Health and Romeoville Fire Academy are trying to change the lives of individuals, not changing just the lives of the individuals coming into the program, but the lives of people in the community,” said Daryl Wilson, MD, an emergency medicine physician for Endeavor Health and EMS Medical Director for Region 8 in Illinois. “The community has to see themselves reflected in the people who are taking care of them.”
“When I was a kid, I hadn’t personally seen roughly any black firefighters, so I never thought that was a job I could obtain,” said Anthawon Bibbs, a recent Romeoville Fire Academy graduate. “You never know. One day I could be driving in the fire apparatus, and a kid could see me and say, ‘Oh, he looks like me, I want to be like him when I get older.’”
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