Welcome to the webpage for the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps Youth Corps!
Our Youth Corps is made up of high school students ages 14 to 18 who want to learn more about medicine and patient care and the role of EMS providers. Each week, our Youth Corps get a lesson in basic life support skills from one of our Youth Corps Advisors, who are EMT-certified adult members of our corps. These lessons cover many of the skills needed to be a Certified First Responder, such as spinal immobilization, patient assessment, splinting, airway assistance, and bleeding control. In addition, we also provide AHA Heartsaver CPR and AED certification to our youth members. All of this training is in preparation for the Youth Squad Competition at the Pulse Check EMS Conference in September.
In addition to skills lessons, we also have our Youth Corps do community service to teach them responsibility and put into context what we do. Our Youth Corps is essential to helping to maintain our base and our ambulance fleet. We also train all of our Youth Members to be dispatchers for our corps. Once they have finished their dispatch training (usually in October) they are allowed to come in when we have a crew on tour and assist in dispatching the crew, putting the EMS lessons into context. Our Youth Corps also helps out at the many events that our Ambulance Corps participate in.
Our goal here at the FHVAC Youth Corps is to provide a well rounded experience for our members to learn about health care and mature into responsible young men and women who possess a passion for helping others. Many of Youth Corps members go on to continue to do community service in college, including completing their EMT-B training. We also allow our Youth Members to be promoted to general membership once they turn 18, and several of Youth Members still participate here while they are in college.
If you would like more information about our Youth Corps or would like to join us, please email us at [email protected]. At this time we only accept paper applications, which may be submitted when you come in for your interview. All youth corps applicants must be interviewed with a parent present in order for us to consider your application. Interviews are conducted during our regular meetings, which are every Tuesday at 7:00pm. We hold meetings throughout the year, including summers and holiday breaks.