About Us
Our Story
Every day, in every community, EMS responders answer the call to provide lifesaving care and transportation for our family, neighbors and friends. Their commitment to service is many times our first line of defense when an accident or disaster occurs. The majority of EMS responders in our state are volunteers; these volunteers work to save precious lives every day and many ask for nothing in return. T.L.C.F. Inc, a 501(c)3 organization, was founded in 2003 in memory of one such volunteer. Read More
The need is great for trained and ready first responders and local communities with citizens able and ready to help themselves until help arrives. In Minnesota 96% of fire service personnel are volunteers, and nationwide uniformed emergency responders constitute less than one percent of the total U.S. population. We believe in every community, every neighborhood, every family, and every individual, stronger, safer, and better prepared in the event an emergency or disaster of any kind strikes.
Today our mission continues as we award scholarships to remarkable individuals throughout the state who are committed to making a difference in their local communities as firefighters, paramedics and nurses. In 2013, our scholarship program expanded to include an award for non-traditional students returning to accreditated programs to train for careers in one these three fields. We continually seek opportunities to support fire prevention programs for children in our elementary schools, and training efforts of fire departments and ambulance services so that our EMS responders can be best prepared to respond in times of emergency.
Our mission is to help build strong, better prepared, and more resilient Minnesota communities for times of emergency. We do this through the funding of scholarships and training grants, by planning and facilitating readiness and response educational programs, and by joining with community partners for advocacy. This mission is made possible through fundraising efforts and the continued financial support of friends of TLCF. We are forever grateful for this encouragment and support and look forward to continued growth and development in the years to come.
Why our work is so important . . .
The need is great for trained and ready first responders and local communities with citizens able and ready to help themselves until help arrives. In Minnesota 96% of fire service personnel are volunteers, and nationwide uniformed emergency responders constitute less than one percent of the total U.S. population. We believe in every community, every neighborhood, every family, and every individual, stronger, safer, and better prepared in the event an emergency or disaster of any kind strikes.
Today our mission continues as we award scholarships to remarkable individuals throughout the state who are committed to making a difference in their local communities as firefighters, paramedics and nurses. In 2013, our scholarship program expanded to include an award for non-
Our mission is to help build strong, better prepared, and more resilient Minnesota communities for times of emergency. We do this through the funding of scholarships and training grants, by planning and facilitating readiness and response educational programs, and by joining with community partners for advocacy. This mission is made possible through fundraising efforts and the continued financial support of friends of TLCF. We are forever grateful for this encouragment and support and look forward to continued growth and development in the years to come.
Why our work is so important . . .
- As a state and as a nation emergency preparedness is a shared responsibility.
- Minnesota's volunteer fire department recruitment and retention efforts have been falling since the 1980s.
- Out of the roughly 20,000 firefighters in Minnesota, only about 1,300 of them are career firefighters, the rest are volunteers.
- Including full-
time crews, Minnesota has the lowest number of firefighters in the region, just 36 for every 10,000 people in the state. - The U.S. only has approximately 800,000 active Law Enforcement Officials (includes Police and Sheriff), 1.1 million Firefighters (over 70% are volunteers) and 210,000 EMT / paramedics. In other words, there are only about 2.1 million First Responders supporting over 300 million people . . .