Delaware Tries to Boost Minority Ranks
When Sussex County Emergency Medical Services Director Glenn Ludtke hires a Hispanic paramedic applicant in about eight months, the number of minorities on his 110-person staff will increase to two.
"Hey, we're going to double our minority participation," he jokes. "Not everybody can say that."
Ludtke is nothing but serious, however, when he talks about the efforts of Delaware's three county-run paramedic forces to raise their historically low levels of minority employees through targeted recruitment.
Minorities make up just 4 percent -- or 10 employees out of 246 -- of the paramedic staffs statewide. That number has barely inched forward since last summer, when a News Journal article highlighted the statistics.
"We recognize the problem and we all have the same issues," Ludtke said. "It's become clearer we're not an attractive profession -- or at least not a known profession -- in many of the minority communities. So we've got to get the word out."
Ludtke is heading up a new diversity task force for the National Association of EMS Educators. A symposium is scheduled for September in Hollywood, Calif., where Ludtke said he hopes to exchange ideas with other paramedic leaders on how they have tackled the problem.
Meanwhile, Delaware's paramedic chiefs have been working on their own solutions.
In New Castle County, EMS chief Lawrence Tan has spent the past year getting public service announcements broadcast on radio stations in the Wilmington and Philadelphia markets, posting recruitment information at historically black colleges such as Delaware State University, hosting informational sessions and working with Junior Achievement to reach minority students.
"They're doing this right," New Castle County Public Safety Director Ron Frazier said last week while giving council members a status report on the efforts.
"It may not yield all the results in terms of diversity, but the process is solid," he said. "And it's going to take some time."
The profession has long struggled to attract minorities for several reasons, including the decades-old tradition of paramedics coming from the ranks of volunteer fire and ambulance companies that have largely been white, and the lack of awareness among minority populations that emergency medical services is a career choice.
"It's going to be a long, hard pull because we have to start at the educational level," Ludtke said. "I'm convinced that's where we have to start."
Tan, Ludtke and Kent County Public Safety Chief Colin Faulkner said schools that offer paramedic training also must actively recruit minorities.
"We blanket the East Coast and we go to all the schools, and they all look like me," said Ludtke, who is white. "If schools don't train them, we can't hire them."
Leaders said they want their paramedic staffs to reflect the racial makeup of the communities they serve. Delaware's nonwhite population is about 25 percent, according to Census data.
"It's been a challenge, but we're working diligently," Faulkner said. "It's a hard job. It's labor-intensive, emotionally intensive and academically intensive. And it's not for everybody."
New Castle County Councilman Jea P. Street, who was outspoken last year in his criticism of the county's minority recruitment efforts, said he's pleased to hear progress is being made.
The county's latest graduating class of paramedics included two minorities, bringing the total to six on a staff of 101.
"The only thing I asked for, I think you've done," he told Frazier and Tan. "I asked for fairness. I think it's an excellent start and good progress. If it's two this time, hopefully it will be four or five next time."
Republished with permission of The News Journal.
