Tri County Tech

PROJECT PURPOSE

Tri County Tech is one of the 29 technology centers within the Oklahoma Careertech system, serving residents of three rural northeastern counties (Washington, Nowata, and Osage). We serve high school and adult students with specialized career training in 30+ instructional areas. Tri County Tech is a recipient of the 2018 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the only Presidential Award for leadership in performance improvement. Tri County Tech is requesting $10,627,740 to build an Emergency Services Center (ESC) to provide emergency services education and training to A) high school students to matriculate into first responder professions, and B) regional emergency response departments, currently traveling across the state and outside the state to receive required training at great expense. The students who graduate from the program will be employable by local fire, police and sheriff departments, and ambulance and health service providers in our region and throughout Oklahoma. All graduates can receive certifications in firefighter 1, EMT and CLEET, and are ready for employment, skipping the lengthy and expensive on-the-job training. The requested ARPA funds will be used for building required amenities (emergency services center, dispatch center, combat training facilities, emergency vehicle operation course, shooting house, and props for advanced fire training).

EVIDENCE

We validated the project needs and the required interventions through strategic planning sessions with 20 area emergency response departments and targeted research. We asked how we could improve training and counteract the challenges first responders face after COVID-19, like high levels of employees leaving the professions. The answer overwhelmingly was that the area needed to expand current offerings to include critical training infrastructure, ensure our first responders can receive the training they need, and avoid costly out of the region training. The findings also pointed out the acute need for the certified, ready-for-work volunteer and career firefighters in the region.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Tri County Tech serves a majority rural area throughout Washington, Nowata, and Osage counties. All three counties have high below the poverty line rates and low per capita income (W: 11.9%, $20,250; N: 14.1%, $14,244; O: 13%, $21,797), and therefore are highly susceptible to sudden economic downturns such as the one created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic, the local economic activity in our service area has been constrained from downsizing in the oil and gas sector since 2015. The region is also home to a large Native American population (10.3%, 16.7%,14.4%), among the hardest-hit groups by the pandemic. Rural America, including our region, has long been known to be at higher risk for fire and life safety threats. Over 75% of our fire departments are exclusively volunteer departments, and our region is struggling to retain them. We are also experiencing a critical shortage of emergency responders, voluntarily leaving jobs post-pandemic.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The goals of our project are to A) create an economic base in the Tri County area for emergency services education and training industry while reducing the training funds going to outside the region or state, and B) create a pipeline of firefighters, police, EMT/Paramedic and dispatchers with skills and certifications ready to enter the workforce. The four primary data points collected will be (1) the graduation rate of students, (2) program certifications, (3) student job placement in relevant career fields and (4) average adult wage for graduates. Tri County has established student, training, and career tracking methods.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma