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Why are there demographic questions like gender identity on the survey?

We ask some of these variables for reasons like:

• Females and women are traditionally underrepresented in fire service research.
• We know that injury risk changes with additional years of experience.
• We want to be responsive to your requests as a workforce. You have asked us if scores look different among people of different age groups, among veterans, across different ranks—we can only answer those questions if we have the data.
• All of it is for national-level analysis—this information will never go back to the department. They will never know, for example, that a female captain at Station 2 answered this way. Even with the average scores at the station level included in the final FOCUS report, if there are less than five responses, we gray out the data. The Mock FOCUS Report shows what data is presented back to the department.

DOWNLOAD THE MOCK FOCUS REPORT

Can we get a mid-survey response rate update from the FIRST Center?

Absolutely—we can view your department's overall response rate based on the membership counts you provided in your department demographic form.

Can you tell me who specifically hasn't taken the survey yet in my department?

Unfortunately, we cannot see who specifically has or has not taken the survey. The data captured is completely de-identified to the FIRST Center team, so we have no way of knowing who said what on the survey. We recommend using Vector Solutions or an LMS to help you keep track of your membership's individual progress with the survey.

I'm having trouble motivating my membership to complete the survey. What should I do?

The Survey Companion Documents webpage hosts several links to resources you can use to educate your membership about FOCUS while increasing buy-in and motivation. From there, you can download the following documents for free:

• Labor Management Letter of Support Template
• Mental Health Resource Guide
• Mock FOCUS Report
• Posters
• Video Recording Instructions for recording a video about FOCUS to share with your department

You can also visit the Department Testimonials webpage to hear from other departments about how they used their FOCUS data to get staffing, behavioral health, gear, and peer support resources.

If you have additional questions, please contact the FIRST Center FOCUS Team at FOCUS@drexel.edu

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