CampHERO for girls aims to battle career stereotypes

From madison.com: “CampHERO for girls aims to battle career stereotypes” — Hannah Lewis, 9, crept into a darkened room, squirt gun drawn, looking for her target, in this case, Madison Police Sgt. Jason Freedman.

She and her partner found him quickly, hiding beside a desk.

“It’s always the unknown we are worried about,” Columbus Police Chief Daniel Meister told a group of Girl Scouts playing cat-and-mouse in a unit on “police tactics” Tuesday during CampHERO.

The inaugural camp, being conducted in part this week at the Madison Area Technical College Fire Training Center, is intended to challenge the stereotypes inherent in male-dominated protective services professions and expose girls to firefighting, police work and other fields.

Freedman and Meister are two of 117 volunteers helping to put on the one-of-a-kind camp for local Girl Scouts from kindergarten through high school.

At one point, Meister tried to stifle a group of girls’ giggles as they entered an office area in the hunt for Freedman. “You’ve just lost your tactical advantage,” he told them.

By the end of the exercise, Hannah said she’d like to grow up to be a police officer. “I would get to help people and solve crimes,” she said.

Other camp activities included fingerprinting, CPR, first aid, ropes, extinguishers, dispatch, CSI, self-defense and learning how to handle fire hoses.

Lt. Jen Roman of the Madison Fire Department, the camp’s director, said that only 3.6 percent of fire professionals are female. It’s 13 percent for police and 35 percent for EMS.

“Culturally we have a gender bias — not just in protective services, but in all careers,” Roman said. “Research tells us by the time kids enter kindergarten they already have ideas about stereotypical gender roles.”

One hundred and sixty girls are taking part in the camp, offered this week and last, said Christine Posey of Girl Scouts of Wisconsin-Badgerland Council.

“Our job as Girl Scouts is to build young leaders, young women who have courage, confidence and character,” Posey said. “They are going to feel like they can go into these fields.”

If Hannah Lewis, who will be in fourth grade at Yahara Elementary in DeForest, was convinced, Sarah Blumer, 10, already had her mind made up. The soon-to-be fifth-grader from Monticello knew she wanted to be a firefighter like her dad.

“I don’t really have to think on that. It’s a definite yes,” she said.

Carolanne Trilling, 23, who has been a Madison firefighter almost two years, said she was about Sarah’s age when she made her decision.

“It runs in my family, too. The seed was definitely planted in my head,” Trilling said. “What they are doing here is probably the best thing you can do in your community for a group of girls.”

WCTC to open emergency training facility

From jsonline.com: “WCTC to open emergency training facility” — Village of Pewaukee – A former child care center on the Waukesha County Technical College campus has been turned into a training center that aims to give students, police and other emergency responders a realistic experience – the next best thing to what can be the worst of situations.

The public got a firsthand look during a dedication and open house this week at the 20,000-square-foot training center on Morris St., across Highway 16 from the main campus.

With plenty of room to stretch out, the center is organized into four laboratories that mimic real-life situations:

• A simulated home or apartment can be staged as a crime scene – from a burglary or drug den to a domestic abuse incident or a homicide. It can be staffed with potential victims, criminals and witnesses, where a police officer or officer-in-training must wind his way through multiple rooms to evaluate the threat and make decisions, or where evidence must be detected and analyzed.
• An interactive technology area projects episodes on multiple walls that simulate 350 different incidents typical of what police officers encounter on the job. The trainee first enters an exertion area where he or she is put through some paces to elevate heart rate and breathing. Then the trainee must react to what he or she sees – a man advancing with a crowbar who looks ready to swing and won’t drop it on command, for example. Depending on the response, the instructor alters the scenario to prompt more decision-making.
• A “simunition” lab presents exercises for armed officers who must wind through up to a dozen rooms. In this place, though, they use guns loaded with dummy bullets and marking cartridges similar to paintballs. Live actors – not paper targets – prompt actions and reactions from officers.
• A command center, which is not yet fully equipped, will eventually give community leaders and their emergency responders the setting for hazardous duty. Situations ranging from tornado devastation and flooding to a school shooting or terrorist attack will be programmed so public officials and public safety employees can see the scenes on screen, make decisions accordingly and plan the response.

Brian Dorow, associate dean for the school’s criminal justice department, said the center aims to offer “holistic, scenario-based training” – where the training begins from the moment someone calls for help until the response is finished.

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