South Chungcheong fire department, youth center sign MOU to draw younger volunteer firefighters amid aging membership
South Chungcheong Province is expanding youth participation in community safety activities to counter the aging of its volunteer firefighter corps and strengthen local emergency response capacity.
The provincial fire department signed an MOU with the South Chungcheong Youth Center on Friday to bring more young people into the volunteer fire service. Officials from both organizations attended the signing ceremony at the youth center.
Under the agreement, the South Chungcheong Youth Center will use its network of city and county youth centers and an online youth portal to support recruitment drives and fire-safety outreach for the volunteer corps.
The provincial fire department will provide youth-oriented fire safety education — including CPR and fire prevention training — and actively support the promotion of youth policy initiatives.
The two organizations plan to work out the details of their cooperation through follow-up consultations, covering volunteer recruitment, promotional campaigns and fire safety education, with the aim of steadily expanding opportunities for young people to take part in community safety activities.
Ahead of the signing, the provincial fire department had been pursuing a volunteer revitalization plan since July, centered on youth-targeted outreach and network-building to identify and recruit talent from younger age groups.
"Bringing more young people into the volunteer fire service will inject fresh energy into the organization while also helping to raise the community's overall safety capacity," said Park No-gwang, head of the provincial fire department's prevention and safety division. "We will continue to strengthen cooperation with youth-related organizations so that more young people can take part in local safety activities."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
